Take The Risk
by Dru
Summary: Alternate ending to 'Adam', Ianto finds out the risks of retcon. Co-written with Qualli
1. Chapter 1

Jack let his head rest against the doorjamb of his office for a brief moment, trying to push away the headache that was nibbling at back of his brain.

Adam was locked up in the cells. The creature had screamed, begged, threatened, tempted, and sobbed. Tosh had sobbed as well, but in the end Adam had been secured and now was only the matter of convincing Toshiko, and the others that Adam wasn't what he appeared.

Jack gathered the team in front of Tosh's computer, all but Ianto, who shook his head, and tried to sink further into the couch. Jack frowned but positioned his own body so that the monitor wouldn't be visible from Ianto's position. He stood behind Tosh, placing one hand on her shoulders, half in support, half to make sure she stayed in her chair. With the other hand he brought up a table of footage.

"That is not a friend. He's not a coworker, or a lover." Jack said, speaking over Adam's tinny voice urging them to remember from the small speakers.

"Jack. No." Tosh protested, breath hitching. "That's, that's just Adam. Our Friend. Our coworker. My lover. He's not- This doesn't prove-"

Jack reach over, turning up the speakers as Adam and Ianto appeared on screen. He refused to flinch, letting the screams sink in.

"Is that your lover Tosh? Would you really love someone who could do that?"

Tosh shook her head mutely, covering her mouth. Gwen was gripping Jack's arm, looking up at him in horror, while Owen was staring intently at the screen, eyes squinting behind his glasses.

"He's not who we thought he was. He's some sort of memory... vampire. He changed our memories. Changed us." Jack said. "He admitted as much. He got into our heads and he survives because we think he's real and we have to forget him." he insisted.

Owen made a small choked noise and moved forward, tapping quickly to replay the footage of Adam attacking Ianto. "Oh my- oh my god! Jack, Christ that must have caused brain damage. He was having fits." Owen looked over at where Ianto was sitting on the couch, chewing his lip and resolutely ignoring the small group huddled around the computer. "We need to get him down to the autopsy bay and run some scans."

Jack winced as the footage played again. "You think it's that serious?"

Owen nodded earnestly.

"He's pretty messed up." Jack admitted. "Adam has him convinced he's a serial killer. Ianto tried to make me lock him up in the vaults, trying to keep us safe…from him."

Owen pushed his glasses up his nose and kept frowning at Ianto. "I won't know till I can examine him. He looks like he's in shock, at the very least, even if there's no brain damage."

He moved over and crouched next to Ianto carefully, resting a hand lightly on his knee. "Ianto? I need you to come with me okay? We're going to go run a few tests on you, alright?" He spoke softly and gently, as if to a child, or a frightened animal.

Ianto blinked blearily at him. "What?"

"Come on. Just going to run a few tests on you. Nothing painful, just some scans. You won't feel a thing." Owen promised as he coaxed Ianto to his feet and started leading him towards the autopsy bay.

"Scans? Jack?" Ianto called uncertainly as looked over his shoulder, as he let himself be led away from the main hub.

"Gwen, take care of Tosh." Jack gave Tosh's shaking shoulders a brief pat then quickly followed the two men, taking Ianto's hand comfortingly.

"It's going to be okay Ianto. You just have to remember those things aren't real. Adam put them there. Owen's going to check you out, then I'll make it all go away." Jack squeezed his hand.

Ianto looked unsure.


	2. Chapter 2

Owen got Ianto seated on the table, and threw his stethoscope around his neck. He grabbed the medical equipment that he had left out after examining Gwen earlier. "Alright just relax. I'll try to make this quick." He flashed a light in Ianto eyes, and Ianto flinched back. Jack's hand shot out, keeping the younger man from toppling off of the table.

"Sorry. Sorry." Owen mumbled, "Let's try that again." He brought up the torch more slowly and watched the pupils for a few seconds; he hummed noncommittally and pulled a scanner out of his coat pocket.

Jack stayed by Ianto's side holding his hand throughout the myriad of tests, only letting go when Owen needed him to move.

Finally Owen sighed, fiddling with one last machine before holding it up to Ianto's head.

"Can you get him to speak some, Jack? He hasn't talked much and I need to know if he can talk clearly. Think clearly. See if there's any damage."

Jack frowned. Ianto had hardly said a word since Jack had shown him the footage. He had thought it had just been shock. Sure as hell looked like shock. Ianto's couldn't be – Owen couldn't be right.

Ianto was still staring at the floor as if he hadn't heard the doctor. Jack reached up, jostling his arm slightly.

"Ianto," Jack asked softly. "Sweetheart, can you talk to me for awhile?"

It took a moment, but finally Ianto looked up.

"You kept telling him the memories weren't real." The younger man spoke quietly. "But they are. I can feel the rain. It's going down that gap my coat makes at my neck. I can smell the leather of the gloves. Hear them scream." Ianto gasped and began to lean forward, trying to bury his head against Jack's shoulder.

Owen grabbed his arm, keeping him upright and within range of the scanner.

Jack took Ianto's other hand, holding them both up against his chest, and after a moment's hesitation Ianto started again. "I strangled them. I killed them, and oh god Jack, I got off on it." Ianto surged forward again, and this time Owen let him go.

Jack caught the younger man, pulling him against his chest as he slid off the autopsy table.

"No. Yan. That wasn't you. That was never you." Jack reassured his lover as he pressed his lips to Ianto's hair, making soothing noises in his ear as Ianto sobbed into his shoulder.

Owen stood behind them, one hand hovering above Ianto's shoulder uncertainly.

As Ianto quieted Jack looked over Ianto's shoulder at Owen. Owen looked nearly upset as Jack felt. The doctor never could stand to see someone upset,

"Jack" Owen said slowly. "There- there's defiantly brain damage. Like a concussion, a really large concussion. It seems to be temporary and it should heal, but-"

"What will retcon do?"

"What?" Owen looked up at him, shaking his head in confusion.

"Adam exists only in our minds. To get rid of him, we all need to forget. What will retcon do with Ianto's brain damage?"

"I- I don't know. But it can't possibly be good. Jack, you can't retcon him in his condition. It could k-kill him!"

Ianto wriggled out of Jack' arms, leaning shakily against the autopsy table. "Do it. I'll take the risk. We need to get rid of Adam, and I need to forget."

Jack felt a cold rush through his body at first Owen's, and then Ianto's words. Ianto couldn't take that risk. He glared at the younger man, who only stiffened, his jaw going out, and his red-rimmed eyes narrowing in a sure sign that he was gearing for a fight.

"Ianto! No! I-I'm your doctor and I'm saying no! I'm putting my foot down!" He put his foot down, literally, the dress shoe squeaking slightly on the tile. Owen's try at being firm didn't quite work, it never really did. Jack fought down an irrational grin at the sight, and saw Ianto do the same. As soon as Ianto noticed that Jack was watching him his features were schooled back into a scowl.

"Ianto we can find another way." Jack argued. "We'll wait until you heal, keep Adam locked up for a few days, then just give us all a larger dose."

"More like weeks or, maybe, months." Owen interjected. "It can take a long time to heal from this type brain damage."

"We can't wait that long!" Jack argued.

"Exactly." Ianto nodded. "And I can't live with these memories that long. Jack we have to do this. We'll leave a note to Owen to check me out when we wake up. We can't mention Adam in any way, but just something with my scans, and a note that I'm injured. Owen won't know _how_, but he's a good doctor, he'll still be able to take care of me."

"If you're alive. I can't cure death." Owen whispered.

Jack ran a hand through his hair. What were his choices? Let a dangerous creature, who'd messed with all their heads, changed all of them, live? He had all but raped Tosh, scarred Ianto for life, drug up Jack's old memories, and turned Owen into a stuttering pile of shy nerves.

'I made them happier' Adam's voice whispered in the back of his mind. 'Made them better.'

Or did he risk possibly killing Ianto.

"Owen what are the risks? What could happen to him? You said he _might_, die? It's not a certain thing?" Jack asked, turning to the frustrated doctor.

Owen sighed, and focused his answer towards Ianto, who looked up, chewing on his lip again.

"I- it's- no it's not a certainty, nothing is. But you basically have a severe concussion. Retcon not only changes your memories, it knocks you out. As you know, unconsciousness and head injures do not go together. You already have- " He stopped, digging through the stack of papers, pulling out the relevant one and handing it to Jack. "Confusion, and blurred vision."

He paused again and squinted at Ianto. "And I'm betting nausea, and incoherent thought processes. Being retconed can only make it worse. At best you'll be violently ill when you wake up. At worst you won't wake up." Owen was getting more and more distressed as he spoke, rifling through the print outs franticly, as if there was some magical set of numbers or graphs that would change Ianto's mind. Jack knew better. "If you wake up, you i will /i have brain damage. Possibly, probably debilitating. You can't-"

The captain put a hand on Owen's shoulder trying to calm him down. "Owen shh. I'm not any happier about this than you are. But- can you think of anything else? How else can we get rid of Adam, and undo what he's done to us?"

"There's nothing." Ianto said quietly. "Even if you all were retconed, and I wasn't Adam would still be in my head. It has to be all of us."

"You- quiet you! You're brain damaged, you can't legally make decisions for your self right now."

"What are my chances?" Ianto pressed, looking steadily at Jack.

"I. Maybe, 80-20 you'll wake up. But _something_ will happen. Something bad. Jack, please. Give me a few days, maybe I can come up with something?" Owen turned, pleading with Jack.

Jack looked from one pair of pleading eyes to the other and groaned covering his face.

"Jack, please? Even if it wasn't about getting rid of Adam, I can't live with these memories he's put in my head. I- I'm a monster. I don't want to be a monster. Please Jack, retcon me!"

Jack took a deep breath and turned looking at Owen. "We're doing it. Get together a file of Ianto's tests and a note telling your self something about what happened, no details that could remind us of Adam, just that Ianto was hurt and needs medical attention." He turned back to Ianto and kissed him on the forehead. "I'm going to go get everything ready. You stay with Owen until then, okay?"

Ianto nodded slightly and wrapped his arms around his stomach.

Owen breathed out sharply, and then switched back to being comforting, though he was slightly flustered at his coworkers kissing in front of him. "You'll be fine." He gave Ianto and Jack both a shaky smile. "Like you said, I'm a good doctor, I'll take care of you when we wake up. Have you all better in no time, I'm sure."

Jack smiled slightly as Owen stepped into the role of comforter, distracting and reassuring Ianto. Jack gave Ianto's hand a final squeeze and the headed to his office at a run, needing to get this done and over with as soon as possible.


	3. Chapter 3

The team gathered in the conference room, each silently taking their seats except for Jack who paced around the room, like a caged lion. He tossed the small box of retcon from hand to hand.

"You all know why we're here, right?"

Tosh wiped fruitlessly at her tears. "Yes. To kill Adam." Her eyes flickered up the monitor where the CCTV showed the man, creature Jack reminded himself, pacing in his cell. Tosh sobbed quietly again and Gwen reached out, taking one of her hands.

Jack swallowed hard, eyes going to Ianto sitting next to Owen, who was watching the younger man obsessively. "Right. Our memories define us. Adam changed our memories. Changed who we are. Now I have to help you all go back, find a memory that defines you, rediscover who you are." Jack leaned against the end of the table. "If I'm wrong, he'll still be here when we've done this. If we're right though…"

Jack hit a button on the console making the video feed of Adam disappear, to be replaced with a hypnotic blue swirling pattern. "Let me take you back, to before we all met." he pressed another button and the lights in the room dimmed. "Feel around for anything that makes you what you are. The hidden. The forgotten." His voice slowly lowered to a whisper. "Tell me where you are."

Their voices seemed to echo in his head.

_Collage canteen. Rhys is sitting opposite me telling stupid jokes. **Where do you find a tortoise with no legs? Where you left it!**_

_It's my Birthday. I'm ten. Mum spends the whole day screaming, 'I love you because you're my son, but that doesn't mean I have to like you!'_

_Maths club. Something to reliable about maths. Always a right answer._

_Meeting Lisa. Falling in love. Never felt so alive._

_Turned sixteen. She packs my bags. 'That is the nicest thing you've done for me in years Mother.'_

_Kissing him in the super market. The look on his face._

_My first flat. Don't have a flat warming. There's no one I want to invite._

_Losing Lisa. Like the world had ended._

_The way he looks at me sometimes. As if he's scared of what he feels for me, I love him, but not in the way I love you._

Jack handed Gwen a pill. "Take this." He commanded gently and stroked a hand across her hair, tucking the long dark strands behind her ear before moving on.

_Knowing there has to be more to life then this. Knowing I'm special. Waiting for someone to see it._

Jack carefully placed his hand on Tosh's shoulder and smiled down at her. "I saw it." He placed the pill on the table in front of her and ran his hand over her neck and shoulders.

_When you save one life, a hundred lives, but it's never enough. Who'll save me?_

Jack pressed his hand against Owen's chest. "I will." He placed the pill in front of the doctor, and pressed his hand back to Owen's chest for a moment, before sliding his hand over his shoulder, heading to Ianto.

_Coming here. It gave me meaning again._ Ianto looked up at Jack and spoke out loud. "You."

Jack leaned down and dropped a tender kiss to Ianto's forehead before placing the pill in front of him. He reached out, stroking his fingers against Ianto's jaw, hands slowly dragging off him before Jack moved back to the head of the table.

"You each have a short term amnesia pill. It'll make you forget Adam. We have to wipe out the last 48 hours from our memories. Go back to who we were."

Gwen and Tosh reached forward, slowly popping the pills into their mouths, washing it down with a sip of water from the crystal tumblers in front of them. Owen pulled off his glasses as he dry swallowed his retcon pill and gave Tosh a confused, and pained look, as his real and fake memories conflicted.

Ianto and Jack waited until the other's heads lowered to the table, and they fell asleep. Ianto held the pill between his fingers looking at it. This might be the last thing he saw before he died, Jack thought, with a sudden flash of pain. He made his way back to his lover and threaded his fingers though Ianto's hair. Jack swallowed before speaking. "I-"

"There's no other way. You know it." Ianto said quietly, shaking his head. He looked into Jack's eyes. "I love you, Jack. I just need to say that. I know neither of us will remember, even if I live, but I still have to tell you."

Jack squeezed his eyes closed for a moment then knelt down and pulled Ianto into a deep kiss. "I love you too." He whispered hoarsely, bringing his hands up to cradle Ianto's face, stroking his fingers against full lips and pale cheeks. Ianto leaned in for another kiss, chaste and gentle. Jack smiled reassuringly as he put his own retcon pill into his mouth and swallowed as Ianto did the same. He lowered his self to the ground and leaned against Ianto's chair, holding his hand tightly as the drug took affect.


	4. Chapter 4

Owen winced as he woke up. He felt rather like he had had too much to drink last night. Far, far too much to drink. Only he hadn't. ...had he? "Fuck I can't remember..." He muttered, then groaned around the cottony feeling in his mouth, as he peeled his eyes open. He squinted and rubbed at them, hard enough to cause black spots to appear at the corner of his vision. He couldn't see that well, but he was clearly in the conference room. Why was he in the conference room?

Across from him he could see the girls waking up in the same condition. Confused, and vaguely headache-y.

Owen spotted his glasses on the table in front of him and his hand shot forward. He stuck them hastily in his pocket. Okay so he was vain, and didn't want anyone to know he wore glasses. He never even brought them into the hub. So why-

" Did we all get drunk last night or something?" Gwen asked rubbing at her temples as she interrupted is inner monologue.

"I don't know." Owen looked around. "...Is Jack on the floor cuddling Ianto's leg?" Owen asked, tempted to rub his eyes again.

Tosh and Gwen craned their necks to see and then laughed.

" Aww...I hope the CCTV is getting this." Tosh said. "Oh! Wait, we can look at the footage, to find out what happened!" she spun in her chair and grabbed the keyboard to the computer behind her, diving into the new mystery.

Owen frowned tapping his fingers on the table, feeling far too Nancy Drew for comfort. "There's no alcohol. No bottles, nothing. If we got drunk enough to pass out this place should be a mess."

"...Maybe Ianto cleaned up, before passing out with us? He's done it before when we've managed to drink ourselves under the table." Gwen said, and Owen winced as her spine popped loudly when she stretched.

"Gwen, Owen? There's nothing." Tosh reported. "The CCTV was turned off, and... Well it's missing two days."

"What?" Gwen squawked. "How can that be? What could have wiped the CCTV?"

"I'm still looking. I'm going to move to my desk, where I can do it better." Tosh said, getting up and jogging from the room, as Owen and Gwen still sat looking confused, and Jack and Ianto slept.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Owen asked, already going back through his memories, as he looked down at the calendar function on his watch. There was the blonde at the club, but that was two days ago. He remembered waking up, asking her name again over breakfast, and then… nothing.

"I was at home with Rhys. We ordered out." Gwen was frowning. "But it seems so long ago."

"About 48 hours long?" Owen asked, rubbing his eyes again, and Gwen nodded.

Owen pulled himself to his feet and walked over to the two other men, kicking Jack lightly in the shin. "Oi! Rise and shine boss."

Jack shifted, but slowly woke up. He grumbled and he sat up, looking around in confusion. "What?"

"We can't remember anything, and apparently we've lost two days. And the CCTV is wiped, _and_ Tosh just ran off to look into it .." Owen rattled off the specifics.

Gwen shook her head, pushing back and standing up, only slightly wobbly. "I'm going to go call Rhys. He'll be going mad if I haven't been home in two days..."

Owen shook his head, muttering mostly to himself. "Great. That's two days of my life I'll never get back. ...And what the fuck am I wearing?" He demanded, as he looked down at him self, picking at the vest in disgust.

Jack grinned as he pulled himself off of the floor. "I don't know. I think its cute." he gently nudged Ianto's shoulder.

Good idea, Owen thought distractedly, the tea boy's memory could be scary at times. If anyone knew what had happened it would be him.

Ianto didn't respond.

Jack shook him harder. "Ianto? Sweetheart, it's time to wake up!"

Owen gave him a raised eyebrow.

"What? Oh like you don't have pet names?"

Owen snickered.

The captain shook Ianto's shoulder again, and then lightly tapped his cheek. "Ianto come on! Wake up!" Jack was getting alarmed now, and Owen didn't blame him. Ianto wasn't a deep sleeper. More than once Owen had ended up with a gun in his face for sneaking up on the archivist when he was sleeping.

Owen frowned leaning down to press his fingers against Ianto's throat. "Pulse is slow." He let his hand hover under Ianto's nose, feeling the faint breath of air. "Breathing's down." He immediately started looking for obvious signs of injury or distress. "Okay, seriously, _what the fuck happened to us_?"

Jack gave Owen a wide eyed, slightly wild look. "I don't know! Ianto? Sweetheart, please wake up? Please!"

Owen shook his head sharply "Lets get him to the autopsy bay and start running some tests, find out what's the hell is going on here. Okay we need a stretcher, I think that heavy bastard has one stashed around here somewhere..."

Jack rolled his eyes and slid one arm under Ianto's knees, the other going around his back, lifting him up. Owen stepped forward, repositioning Ianto's head so that it rested against Jack's shoulder. "Show off." Owen muttered, earning a slight smile from the other man.

As Owen turned something on the table caught his eye. A folder, with his name on it in bold. And underlined. With a lot of explanation points. Well that was overkill.

He grabbed it and flipped it open, reading the first page out loud. "**OWEN!!** Ianto has brain damage. Possibly temporary. Not Physical. I told them retcon was a bad idea. Here's his scans, get him to the autopsy bay and monitor him if he's alive. Love...Owen." Owen looked up giving Jack a disbelieving look, waving the folder. "It's my hand writing!"

"We were retconed...well at least we know why we can't remember anything, and why the computer's wiped. Clearly there was something we all had to forget..." Jack said, shifting Ianto slightly.

"What-the-fuck-ever! Apparently I thought it was a bad idea, and Ianto has brain damage. Move!" Owen barked pointing towards the door.


	5. Chapter 5

They rushed down the hall into the main hub, Owen scanning over the file while he moved. Scans, printouts, graphs. The whole nine yards. Whoever had put the folder together had been surprisingly thorough.

Tosh gapped as they ran up the steps past her and down the steps into the autopsy bay. She jumped up and followed, grasping the metal railing that ringed in the small room. "What happened?"

"Apparently we were retconed. And Ianto's hurt." Owen ignored Tosh's sound of distress. "Jack put him down. Tosh, get back to work. See if you can find anything that can tell me what caused this." She nodded, slipping back upstairs quietly.

Owen cradled Ianto's head as Jack laid the unconscious man on the autopsy table. It wouldn't help anything if he managed to bash the younger man's head against the metal. The doctor was surprised to see most of the equipment already laid out neatly.

"It reads like he already had some damage, and it's been made worse from the retcon. Who the hell okayed giving him retcon?" Owen snarled as he flew around, hooking Ianto up to the monitors.

He worked around Jack, the older man looked to have a death grip on the Welshman as it was, and Owen wasn't sure he'd be able to shift him if he wanted to. He slid an oxygen mask over Ianto's still face. "Just a little help." Owen explained. "He's breathing fine. But a little extra oxygen won't hurt."

"What do I do?" Jack asked. Owen sighed, turning to the monitor.

"Try talking to him. See if you can get him awake." Owen doubted it would work, but it would keep Jack out of his hair at any rate. That was always a good thing.

Owen sighed and went to work in earnest.

000

More than a quarter of an hour had passed, and there had been no change. Jack had talked the entire time, trying to think of anything that might get Ianto to wake up. He'd even threatened the coffee pot. He was sure that would have worked.

Owen had been uncharacteristically silent. Muttering to himself, running test after test, and Tosh had returned, leaning quietly against the banister.

Jack took a sip of water and was just about to start talking again when Ianto shifted.

"Owen! He's waking up!"

Owen threw down the file he was going over, hurrying to the autopsy table.

Ianto's eye cracked open and he looked blearily up at them. He opened his mouth, paused, and started speaking unitelligably, his voice slurred, the oxygen mask muffling his attempts. Jack wasn't sure, but it sounded vaugly Welsh.

Owen frowned, removing the mask carefully, and looked at Jack. "What's he saying?"

"How the hell would I know?"

"You've lived in Wales for like 200 years, and you're shagging the tea boy! Learn Welsh already!" Owen snapped, before gripping Ianto's jaw, turning the sleepy gaze towards him. "Ianto! Speak English!"

Ianto struggled against the grip. Owen spoke again, and Ianto's head swiveled to the machinery by his head. He frowned, studying it, than pushed himself up and turned, and began to talk to the heart monitor, gesturing back towards the other men but otherwise ignoring them. Jack heard his own name quite clearly, but the rest was unintelligible. After a moment he paused, nodding as the machine beeped, and then turned to Owen, mumbling something that seemed to be a question, if only for the slight uplift of tone at the end of the sentence.

"Owen what's wrong with him?" Jack demanded, looking at Ianto.

Owen snarled and pushed Ianto back on the table. "Lay still! Jack talk to him! Tosh find Gwen, and get her down here to act as translator!" Owen always started throwing commands around when he was at a loss.

Tosh stood frozen starting in shock, until Owen screamed; "GO!" and she took off to find Gwen.

Jack leaned over Ianto, carding through the dark hair. "Ianto? Come on, talk to me sweetheart. Stay with me. Look at me." He let his hand fall, stroking his lover's cheek. "I'm here, I'm not going to leave you."

Ianto looked up at him with unfocused, confused blue eyes. "Jack?"

"Yes! Yes I'm here! That's it, speak to me. English would be helpful, but I'll take anything at this point."

Ianto started speaking in Welsh, then stopped and squinted before starting again. After a few false starts in French, and what might have been Latin, Ianto spoke again in English, turning to bury his face against the cool pillow. "Jack, what's going on? Why am I here?"

"Ianto, you're hurt." Owen said shortly. "Be a love and stay still for me, before I break out the restraints, yeah?" he asked while he worked.

"Hurt?" Ianto asked, ignoring the threat. Owen hardly ever went though with them.

"You have a concussion..uhm, sort of. We don't know how you got hurt, but we were all retconned, and the CCTV was wiped. Tosh was trying to find something to jog our memories." Owen brought up a penlight, frowning at Ianto's slow reaction.

Ianto frowned back. "Well we must have had a good reason, to wipe out all of our memories. We shouldn't try to find out what we forgot." Ianto said earnestly, wrapping a hand carefully around Jack's braces.

Jack kissed him gently. "That was my thought too."

Owen grumbled while he tapped at a keyboard. "While _I_ would like to know what the fuck happened."

"It's for the best. If we went to so much trouble, and risked my life, then we must have had good reason." Ianto reasoned, sounding remarkably lucid for someone who was mumbling at walls a minute ago. That, more than anything, frightened Jack.

"Owen you're not going to go searching are you?" Jack made it sound more like a order, wrapped in a threat, worded as a question.

Owen waved him off not looking up. "I said I want to know, not that I'm going looking. I'm not stupid you know." Owen squinted at the paper he was holding up to the light. "Oh fuck it." He yanked his glasses out of his pocket and slipped them on, and kept working.

Ianto gave Owen a slightly disconnected grin. "You wear glasses? How did I not know this?"

"I wear contacts. I just don't fucking know where they are at the moment, and I don't have time to go find them. Shut up." Owen grumbled, studiously trying to ignore Jack and Ianto's huge grins.

"They're cute! You should were them more!"

Owen winced at the amused tone, and Jack mentally added another symptom to his list. Ianto Jones would never say something like that, at least not with the hint of blackmail hanging in the air.

Ianto giggled. Actually _giggled_! He covered his mouth and tried to cover it with a cough. "Sorry. I'm sorry, it's just..." He gestured at Owen. "The sweater, the glasses, it's just adorable. It's impossible to take you seriously. It's like having a puppy or something as my doctor."

Owen gave him a scathing glare, which just turned Ianto's giggle into guffaw. Jack was fighting down his own laugh at lover's merriment. Though he still managed to give Owen a worried glance.

Owen rolled his eyes and reached down, yanking his sweater off, pulling his t-shirt up with it and making his hair go in every direction. He threw his sweater somewhat in the direction of the railing, making a mental note to stuff it in the incinerator later, and yanked his t-shit down. "There? Is that better?"

Jack looked back down at Ianto, stroking his hair again. "That better?"

Ianto shook his head, tears of laughter streaking down his face.

"I hate my job..." Owen muttered darkly as he started working again. "Jack, calm him down will you?"


	6. Chapter 6

The world simply refused to sit still. It felt like when he would get off an amusement park ride, complete with the nausea. He hadn't been on one of those lately…had he? Maybe Jack had taken him. Had they had any candied apples? His mouth felt gummed up. No that wasn't right. Jack didn't like carnivals, just jumped off roofs when he wanted a rush. He wished Jack wouldn't do that. The splatty sound gave him nightmares. Not that he had ever heard it. But he could imagine…

Ianto squinted, standing off from the rest of the team. They were watching him, slyly, like Ianto couldn't see them. But he could, sort of. One of them was talking, he knew he should be paying more attention to what they were saying, but he just couldn't focus on them. Everything was all...wobbly and it made his stomach hurt. The lights seemed to flash and flicker, he could swear he was seeing little white motion trails when the talker moved his hands. Her hands? Jack's hands. They always waved when he talked.

He shook his head, and winced at the movement. He spotted Jack's coat hanging from the hook, and went over to see what was wrong. He reached out, missing the first time, but eventually grabbing one cuff, stroking the wool.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, "You should be on Jack"

The coat remained on the hook, and Ianto felt a flash of embarrassment. You didn't talk to coats did you? Maybe it couldn't understand. Should he try French maybe? Ianto didn't remember much French, and besides it was an RAF coat. It would know English.

"Please?" Ianto asked, wondering if _he _was speaking English. He couldn't really tell, it sounded a little too vowely to him.

The jacket refused to respond.

"Oh come on," he cajoled. "Jack's much more comfortable then that hook! Go on!"

Again silence from the coat. Ianto was feeling snubbed.

"Who do you think is always getting you cleaned and fixed? Me!" Ianto flicked a small neatly mended hole on one lapel. "I did that. So if I want you to go be on Jack, you should go be on Jack!"

The coat continued to hang limply on its hook, and Ianto dropped the cuff in disgust, muttering something nasty in French. The coat didn't know French.

000

The team sat, huddled around the couch, and in desk chairs, all present but one. Ianto had wandered off again, though Owen was keeping a sharp eye on him. No one felt like trekking back to the conference room, and frankly Ianto was getting weird again, which wasn't very conducive to getting him to sit still in a small room. Ianto had been fairly lucid, other then a few giggling fits, but otherwise he'd been normal. Helpful even.

Now he was lapsing into Welsh again, and having arguments with inanimate objects while wondering aimlessly about the main hub. At the moment he was talking softly to, and petting, Jack's greatcoat.

Owen sighed, resisting the urge to fiddle with his glasses. They were slowly slipping down his nose, but he figured if he ignored them, everyone else might as well.

"Alright so here's what we know: something, we have no clue what, happened that made us have to all be retconed. We've lost 48 hours, and there's an empty locked cell beside Janet."

He reached forward, flipping open the new file he had created on Ianto, showing a color-coded scan.

"At some point during the two days Ianto got some kind of… brain damage, though I have no fucking clue how, because there's no sign of external injures. The retcon, according to the notes…I… left, it didn't help matters at all, and now Ianto's brain is all scrambled." Owen gestured to where Ianto had stopped arguing with Jack's coat and seemed to be trying to mind-meld with one of Owen's plants, twisting a long leaf around his fingers.

Gwen frowned at Owen, and went over to Ianto, gently leading him away from the plant, "Come on sweetie." She said gently, bringing him over and sitting him down on the couch beside Owen. She sat next to him and soothingly petted his arm. "It's alright love. Just stay here with us, okay?"

Ianto watched her mouth closely, eyebrows knit in concentration, and then nodded, though his eyes went back to the plant as he absently rubbed at the sap that the leaves had smeared on his fingers.

Tosh rubbed her temples. "So we have no idea at what happened to us? Was there an accident? Alien invasion?"

Jack shook his head. "No clue, a few random bits and pieces of incomplete files, but nothing to tell us what happened. All of the erased footage has my clearance signature and Ianto left enough evidence to let us know he was the one monkeying around with the emails."

Ianto looked up briefly at his name. He turned to Gwen and mouthed "monkey?" disbelievingly.

Jack coughed. "So all things considered, I think it should stay that way. Clearly something was bad enough we all had to forget it, and I think it's for the best if we keep it at that."

Ianto blinked suddenly, and then nodded. "Yes. Quite." He said, forming the words carefully . He shook his head. "We don't retcon with out a good reason. It must have been serious."

Owen gave a sigh of relief, and noticed the other's doing the same. They all breathed a bit easier now that Ianto seemed to regain his scattered wits. At least for a while. Owen didn't suspect it would hold out for long.

"So what's our plan, then?" Owen asked, giving Jack a raised eyebrow.

"Well we go back to normal. Make sure nothing major is wrong, no funds missing from bank accounts, cars gone, unexplainable rashes, little blue lines on the stick-" Jack waited, and grinned when Tosh smacked his arm lightly.

"Or anything like that, then...forget it." Jack continued with a shrug. "It's a bitch, but honestly there's nothing we can do about it, and you get over it eventually."

His eyes flicked to Ianto. "Other things..."

Owen watched Ianto as well, and the younger man squirmed under their gazes. "Erm. Coffee?"

"No. Stay. We can't let him just roam around." Owen said, looking back at Jack.

"Excuse me? I'm sitting right here, you know! I'm not a child, or… or senile!"

"Well not quite...close, but not quite." The doctor argued.

Ianto glared.

"Do I need to pull up the CCTV footage of you groping the foliage?" Owen asked crossing his arms.

Ianto lowered his eyes and stared at the floor, looking miserable.

Gwen stroked Ianto's arm, making soothing noises. "It's fine, sweetie. You're hurt. You're going to be just fine."

Owen sighed and patted Ianto's leg. "I don't think anything is permanent, but you're not going to be allowed to be by your self for a while. You keep lapsing in and out of lucidity, and you could hurt your self. Someone's going to have to stay with you." Owen glanced around and sighed. "I guess I have first shift of Ianto sitting."

Jack frowned. "I can take care of him."

Owen rolled his eyes "Please. I'm not trying to horn in on your precious tea boy. I'm his doctor, and I want to keep a eye on him for the first couple days, till I'm sure he's going to be alright. Then you lot can battle it out over who gets to baby-sit."

Owen felt Ianto react to the suggestion, and cursed to himself. The younger man stiffened and his patented emotionless-drone mask dropped down over his face.

"Oh stop being pissy." Owen grumbled, keeping his tone light. "You know what I meant. Just stay there a minute while I get my bag, and I'll take you home." Owen said, getting up and heading towards his desk.

"Hey! I didn't say you could go..." Jack objected, even as the others got up, only Ianto remained on the couch, watching him.

"Well you told us to make sure nothing major is wrong, and how are we supposed to do that here?" Gwen argued. "And Rhys sounded funny on the phone...I want to see him."

Jack sighed and threw up his hands dramatically. "Fine! We'll all leave! You have the rest of the day off. But I want all of you, except Owen and Ianto, back in here tomorrow morning! First thing!"

Ianto scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. "Jack, this is silly. I don't need a baby sitter. And I'm not taking Owen home with me!"

"Correct." Owen said. His bag was already slung over his shoulder. He had packed it as soon as he realized Ianto was going to need more than an ice pack and a coddling boyfriend. He grabbed his cold coffee and drained it with a shudder before ambling back over to Ianto.

"I'm taking you home. You are certainly not driving in your condition! Might have to stop by my place later to pick up some things, if I'm going to be watching you for a couple days." Owen reached under the couch and pulled out the spare med kit.. "Have anything you want to take home with you? Grab it now, or say goodbye to it for a few weeks."

Ianto scowled at the doctor and looked at Jack, giving him the patented Jones puppy eyes. He reached out deliberately, and with only a hint of a smirk, and grabbed Jack's shirt cuff. Bloody wonderful.

Jack kissed Ianto on the top of the head, before carefully pulling him up. "Come on. Lets get your stuff, and go." He gave Owen a look. "I'm coming too."

Owen rolled his eyes and dropped down to the couch, his bag falling at his feet, as he pulled his glasses off to rub his eyes. "Of course you are. Just hurry it up, yeah?"


	7. Chapter 7

"Home, dilapidated home." Owen muttered as Jack opened the door to Ianto's flat, giving the warped boards a slight shoulder butt when they tried to stick.

"It's not that bad!" Ianto snapped, pushing past him. He tossed the duffel bag he had brought lightly on to the bed, as Owen took the chance to look around.

The one room, tiny though it was, seemed empty, reminding Owen, depressingly enough of long stay hotel suites. An old dresser leaned against one wall and a large, overstuffed couch was shoved into one corner, next to an opened closet. The foot of the bed nearly touched one arm of the couch, and a small kitchen table with slightly mismatched chairs returned the favor, pressing up against the bed. A small bank of cupboards and kitchen appliances along one wall probably billed optimistically as a 'kitchenette' in the adverts completed the slightly depressing picture. At least the bed was big. And covered with a mound of pillows in all sizes and colors. The only luxury in the little flat.

"It's a closet." Owen announced. "In fact, I think it very well be smaller then my closet. Are there any other rooms? Do you even have a bathroom, or do you have to walk down the block to the petrol station?"

"I don't spend a lot of time here. It's enough for my needs." Ianto defended the small space.

"You don't even have a end table!" Owen argued.

"...what would I need one for?"

"For holding things! Lamps?"

"There's built in lights in the ceiling. See?" He pointed up and Owen actually found himself looking up to see if Ianto was telling the truth. He shook his head and studied the room some more as Ianto took their coats, hanging them neatly in the closet.

Owen opened his mouth again then blinked, frowning. "Were you robbed?"

Jack was reaching for his gun as Ianto looked around in confusion. "What? No. Why?"

"There's _things_ on the floor. Clothes! ...is that a pizza box?" Owen knew he was gaping, but he couldn't help it. He had seriously thought at one point that Ianto might be OCD. A messy flat didn't really fit with that idea.

"I- err well like I said I don't spend a lot of time here..." Ianto shoved the clothes under the bed with his foot, and a quick sharp kick sent the pizza box spinning across the hardwood floor and under the couch, where it thunked against some large, hidden, mess.

Jack laughed, already investigating the small refrigerator. He pulled out two bottles of flavored water and a beer, throwing the latter to Owen. "Ianto's a closet slob!"

"I'm not a slob. I hung up your clothes." Ianto protested. "I just don't bother to obsess, since I don't come here for much more then sleeping and changing, and grabbing a morning coffee on my way out the door." Ianto flopped down on the couch,

Owen shook his head. "You- you are not normal. You need help. You don't even have a TV! A computer! A radio! Books! Anything!"

Ianto frowned and started digging though the couch cushions. After a minute he pulled out a wrinkled newspaper and handed it to Owen. It was over a week old.

"...Ianto...you haven't always lived here have you?" Jack asked, sitting beside him and giving him a bottle of water.

Ianto blinked. "No I used to live with my parents. And I lived in London, in Lisa's flat after I was recruited by Torchwood."

"I mean- since you came to Cardiff."

"Yes, why?"

"...What did you do while you were... off for that couple weeks?" Jack asked hesitantly.

"Sleep mostly. I don't really remember."

Owen went to rub his face and smacked into his glasses, jamming them painfully against his nose. He pulled them off and scowled. "We've got to get you therapy or something. Maybe drugs. Maybe just get you a fucking normal flat, for a start. Where's the bathroom, I'm putting in my contacts before I kill something."

Ianto pointed to the door next to the closet. And Owen grabbed his bag and went into the tiny bathroom. It had a toilet, sink, medicine cabinet and a shower stall. A pair of pajama bottoms hung haphazardly from the towel bar. It was a functional room, but small enough to be uncomfortable.

Owen instantly went for the medicine cabinet to snoop. Tea boy had to have some good prescriptions lying around.

He was met with the site of the usual toiletries, but nothing of any real interest. He made a mental note of the over-the-counter migraine medication, before shutting the cabinet and pulling out his contact case. He frowned at his reflection. He knew they really couldn't look into it, but he really wanted to know why he'd been wearing his glasses, and that stupid sweater at the hub. He had made a point to never have the glasses in the hub, and he hadn't worn that vest in years.

Owen sighed and dropped his glasses on an empty shelf high over the sink. It promptly wobbled, then fell, whacking him squarely on the forehead. He blinked at his reflection in shock for a bare second, and then blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"FUCK!"


	8. Chapter 8

"Owen? Are you okay?" Jack banged on the door, voice worried, he must have flown off the couch.

Owen yanked the door open, hand pressed against his forehead. He ducked quickly as Jack raised his fist to hammer against the door, not quite avoiding a blow that skimmed the top of his head.

"A fucking shelf fell on me! What kind of death trap do you live in?" He demanded glaring at Ianto as he pushed past Jack, back into the main room.

Ianto winced and gestured. "That was there when I moved in...it's kinda...loose."

"No fucking kidding!"

"Let me see." Jack said trying to pry Owen's hand off his head.

Owen hissed though his teeth and pulled his hand away, letting out an annoyed sigh at the blood on his hand.

"Please don't have a concussion. Please don't have a concussion." Jack chanted under his breath while he poked at the gash, and checked Owen's pupils.

"I don't have a concussion, I'm fine. It's just a scrape." Owen said stepping back from Jack. Jack just followed him.

"I think it's a bit worse then that. Looks like it'll need stitches." Jack muttered. "Though your pupils are equal, so that's something. 'Cause I cannot handle two of you with brain damage. Sit down. Ianto do you have a first aid-"

Ianto had moved while Jack was looking at Owen, and already had the kit open and was handing Jack gauze, antimicrobial hand cleaner and was pulling out gloves and a suture kit.

"I _brought _a med kit." Owen groused. "And why the hell do you have a suture kit at home?" Owen demanded.

"I like to be prepared." Ianto said mildly.

"Fucking insane...do you know what you're doing?" Owen demanded turning his attention back to Jack, who'd pulled on gloves and was pulling out a needle.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Owen I'm _old_, as you like to put it, remember? Been around a long time. Know things. And I sew up Ianto all the time, after alien encounters, when you've already left for some bar, and I sew you up for that matter. Why the questioning now?"

Owen grumbled and winced while Jack carefully stuck him with the shot to numb the area. "We need more people with medical training on the team." He complained.

"Tosh is a doctor." Ianto mumbled, watching the med kit intently.

"Then why is she never any help in a medical emergency? Ianto? You still with us?"

Ianto hummed noncomentiely and just knelt there, staring into the box.

Owen groaned. "Great, I think he's going all scrambled again."

Jack sighed and poked Owen's wound. "Feel that?"

"No."

"Good." Jack grabbed the needle and thread and started carefully putting in stitches. Owen kept his eyes closed. Even though he couldn't feel it, he could imagine it.

Jack finished quickly then used a piece of gauze wet with disinfectant to mop up the blood around the stitches. "There we go. All done." He flashed Owen a grin. "Want me to kiss it better, and give you a sucker for being a brave boy?"

Owen rolled his eyes and pushed him self off the couch, grabbing the medical kit and snapping it closed, before Ianto got his hands on anything sharp. Ianto watched him carefully as Owen shoved the box into the closet. Perhaps that wasn't a good idea. No telling what Ianto would find interesting in there in his state. He threw a few shirts over the med kit, and closed the doors, lifting it a bit in its tracks to wedge it shut.

He was heading to the bathroom again when he heard Jack whistle.

"Owen, come!" Jack ordered. He'd grabbed Owen's own, medical kit and pulled out a penlight.

"Not a dog." Owen muttered but obeyed and let Jack check his eyes again. He was pretty sure he was fine, but it really wouldn't do for him to be wandering around, taking care of Ianto, if he was concussed too. They'd have to call Gwen or Tosh to come help.

"Pupils equal and reactive." Jack decreed, handing the penlight to Ianto when the younger man reached for it. "Do you know your name? Know where you are? The year? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Dr Owen Harper, I'm in Ianto's crap flat, it's 2008, four. I think. I'm not wearing my glasses or my contacts okay! Everything's blurry. My brain is undamaged."

"I guess... I'll keep a eye on you both."

"Whatever." Owen turned from Jack and watched Ianto, who had already abandoned the penlight and was arguing with himself, in Welsh. Or possibly the closet doors. "Wonder why he does that."

Jack shrugged, watching Ianto as well. "I don't know."

"You think we should try to get him to talk to us?"

"Maybe. I don't think he has enough things here for a conversation..."

Owen snorted and moved towards Ianto. "Yan? You feel like talking to someone who'll talk back?"

Ianto turned and for one split second Owen was met with a blinding smile, then Ianto blinked at the doctor. The younger man studied his face for a moment, brows furrowed, then launched into rapid fire, angry Welsh, of which Owen didn't get a single word.

Well shit.

Owen listened, smiled, nodded, and backed away slowly until his knees hit the bed. He sat down. "Okay. Your turn." he hissed at Jack through his teeth, still nodding and smiling at the irate Welshman.

Jack moved forward and gently stroked Ianto's hair. "Hey Sweetheart."

Ianto smiled and pressed into Jack's chest, murmuring happily. Jack smirked over his shoulder at Owen.

Owen rolled his eyes and flopped backwards onto the bed, throwing his arm over his blurry eyes. "Show off."

"Owen careful with your stitches." Jack scolded, still cuddling Ianto.

Owen sighed and moved his arm. "Jack, kick my med kit over, yeah?" He pointed to the small kit that he had borrowed from the hub.

"What for?" Jack asked frowning.

"My head hurts, I want a paracetamol." Owen sighed. Of course his head hurt. Idiot. This was going to be a long couple of days if Jack kept being a pain in the arse.

"You sure you're not bleeding into your brain or something...?"

"Jack! I got whacked on the head! That causes headaches! As do you!"

Jack sighed and nudged the bag across the floor.

"Thank you." Owen grunted sitting up to pull out a painkiller.

Ianto seemed to ignore them both, happily nuzzling Jack's chest. Slowly one hand snuck northward and started working on the small buttons of Jack's shirt.

Jack yelped trying to push Ianto's hands down without hurting him "Whoa there tiger!"

"Oi! Absolutely none of that! Not for at least a few weeks! Minimum!" Owen snapped getting off the bed to peel Ianto off of Jack, while the captain carefully fought off Ianto's hands. It was probably time to check him out again anyway.

Ianto whimpered at Owen's hand on his arm and tried to pull away, backing up against the jammed closet door.

"What's wrong with him? Is this normal?" Jack asked looking worried from Ianto to Owen.

"Oh yeah. Perfectly normal. How the _fuck _should I know Jack?" the doctor growled.

At the noise Ianto stilled immediately, watching Owen with wide eyes.

"Ianto" Jack asked softly. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong!" Ianto seemed to latch on to the word. "Wrong. Wrong doctor, mean. I want the nice one with the glasses." Ianto mumbled unhappily.

"Oh for fucks sake..." Owen groaned and let Ianto go, while he went into the bathroom and grabbed his glasses off the floor, unbroken luckily.

He shoved them on his face and came back out, dropping down to sit cross legged beside Ianto. "There. Happy now?"

Ianto smiled and launched him self at Owen.

Owen squeaked in alarm at suddenly being hugged like a teddy bear. "Hate. My. Job." Owen wheezed.


	9. Chapter 9

After awhile Ianto let Owen go, wandering aimlessly or curling around Jack in turns. The ..well, Owen supposed 'spell' was a very Iantoian word to use, had lasted longer than before, though at least Ianto was calm. Jack had taken to rubbing or stroking the younger man's back whenever he was in reach, which seemed to help.

Eventually, thankfully, Ianto came back to his senses again, and untangled himself from his captain with an embarrassed cough. They all silently agreed to not talk about it.

Jack looked at his watch and stretched. "I think it's your bedtime now, Yan."

"It's only 10 pm!"

"You're hurt, you need rest." Jack argued.

Owen nodded. "And one of us is going to be waking you up every few hours, so you're going to want to go to sleep while you can."

Ianto scowled and Owen could see the younger man gearing up for a fight. Ianto had had a surprising number of concussions since joining Torchwood, and had never once behaved during recovery.

"Same goes for you." Ianto said after a moment, crossing his arms. "That shelf hit you pretty hard."

Owen rolled his eyes. "I feel fine, but whatever. I'll be waking up to examine you anyway." The doctor agreed with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Jack kissed Ianto on the forehead and gave him a light shove. "Go on. Go change and get ready for bed."

Ianto muttered about being sent to bed like a toddler, while he got his clothes from the closet, and went into the bathroom, closing the door a little too loudly behind him.

Owen scowled around the tiny flat. "So I guess we're stuck with the children's bed time too. Can't exactly stay up in a one room flat."

Jack was pulling his braces down, kicking off his shoes and loosening his shirt. He looked around and shrugged. "I don't sleep much, but I guess yeah, bed time for us too." He didn't seem to mind and Owen scowled again.

Ianto came out of the bathroom changed into boxer shorts and a t-shirt, suit folded neatly over his arm. "Bathroom's free." He told then while he hung it up.

Owen grabbed his bag from the corner he'd kicked it into. "I'm next." He called out, ducking into the small room, and quickly going through his nightly routine. Well, most of his nightly routine. No matter what Jack said, orgasms really didn't help with headaches, and Ianto wouldn't take kindly to a strange man getting it off in his bath.

When he came out, dressed nearly the same as Ianto, the younger man had been neatly tucked in on one side of the large bed, wrestling to get his nest of pillows just right, and Jack was stretched out on the couch. Owen glared and Jack gave him a questioning look.

"I'm not sleeping anyway." Jack explained, arching his back slightly with an exaggerated wince. "And I figured you'd be more comfortable over there."

No way. No. Way. Owen pointed to the bed.

Jack snorted with laughter and sat up, moving over to the bed obediently and climbed in, lying on top of the sheets, and stealing a particularly lumpy looking pillow. He quickly grabbed two more that Ianto had yet to arrange and tossed them to the doctor. Owen caught them, and yanked a throw from the back of the couch.

"Aren't you going to change?" Ianto questioned, looking at Jack, who was still mostly dressed.

Jack gave him a leer. "You know what I normally sleep him. Somehow I think Owen would object."

"You bloody well bet I'll object! He's injured! No sex anytime in the near future!"

"I really hate concussions." Ianto grumbled, flopping down into his meticulously sorted pillow-pile.

Jack kissed him lightly, and fussed with the blanket, pulling it up to the younger man's chin. "You said it."

Ianto glanced about to make sure Owen was settling down on the couch. "Alright if I turn the lights off?" he asked.

"Yeah, whatever. Despite the bedtime, we're not actually primary schoolers, Ianto. No one's scared of the dark." Owen muttered.

"And you can comfort me if I get frightened." Jack said with a slight leer, nudging Ianto.

Ianto didn't comment, just flicked the switches by his bed, turning the lights in the flat off, casting the room into darkness.

Owen tried to ignore the short bout of shifting and giggling, on Jack's part of course, that came from the bed, pulling one of the pillows over his face.

000

Jack, surprisingly had managed to fall asleep for a while, waking up for only a minute when Owen had gotten up to check on Ianto.

He yawned, rolling carefully out of the bed and headed for the bathroom.

He glanced at his watch, as he squinted in the bright light of the bathroom. 2am. A good four hours of sleep. Impressive for him.

When he finished and exited the bathroom he froze in the dark. A quiet whimper had stopped him in his tracks. "Owen?" he whispered into the dark.

More whimpering.

He concentrated on where the noise was coming from, and moved silently though the darkness to the bed. There was just enough light seeping in from the bathroom to see his lover, curled up in a loose ball beneath the covers, a slight frown on his face the only sign of his distress.

"Ianto? Sweetheart?"

He jumped slightly at a loud crack of thunder, and scowled at the window before sitting on the edge of the bed next to Ianto. At the noise the younger man whimpered again, but barely moved. The Ianto he knew never stayed still in his sleep, usually forcing Jack to the farthest edge of the bed in self-preservation.

"Ianto, wake up. It's just a dream, you're safe."

He shook Ianto lightly, gradually shaking harder as he didn't wake up. Worry growing, he flicked on the lights and moved over to the couch to shake Owen.

"Naaarg! Fiv' mor' mins mum." Owen mumbled pulling the blanket up over his head.

"Owen! Wake up now!" Jack barked, yanking his arm.

Owen's shot upright, blinking around rapidly. "What?"

"Something's wrong with Ianto!"

Jack was shoved roughly aside as Owen leapt up and ran to the bedside. "Ianto? Ianto! What's wrong, what happened?" Owen questioned Jack while he pulled Ianto's eyelid back to look at his pupils.

Jack handed Owen his medical kit and his glasses and hovered. "I don't know. I woke up, went to the bathroom, and when I came out I heard whimpering. But he's –he's not moving any. I tried to wake him up, but nothing was working, so I got you."

"Shit. Pupils are sluggish, pulse and breathing are down. Ianto! Ianto wake up! Come on, I need you to wake up for me!" He slipped his glasses on, figuring it would be easier if the younger man woke up 'scrambled'.

There was no response from the sleeping man.

"Ianto, goddammit. Wake up!"

It took a good five minutes of cajoling and a deafening clap of thunder to get Ianto's attention.

"No." It was whispered, and Jack wouldn't have caught it if he hadn't been watching his lover's lips. As he spoke Ianto's voice got louder and more desperate. "Oh god no! Please! I didn't do that! I'm not like that!" Jack's heart clenched at Ianto's gasped, pleading sob.

"Yan, you're having a nightmare! You have to wake up! Wake up now!" Owen ordered sharply, giving him a light shake.

Ianto whimpered again and Owen stroked his hair. "Wake up! Please just wake up already!" Owen groaned, fear and worry thick in his voice, as he kept two fingers pressed against the pulse in Ianto's neck.

Thunder crashed again, a sudden curtain of rain landing heavily on the small window near the bed, and Ianto's eyes snapped open, flying around the room in a panic. Ianto's gaze skimmed over Jack and the younger man flinched back as Jack held out a hand to him. Instead he locked on Owen, flinging him self into the startled doctor's arms, clinging tightly.

"Whoa! Whoa, there. It's okay. You're okay. Nothing can hurt you. Nothing's gonna hurt you, Ianto." Owen soothed rubbing circles on Ianto's back. "Jack do you wanna..?" He looked over his shoulder at Jack, and gestured to Ianto with his head.

Jack nodded and slid down on the bed next to the two men and tried to take Ianto from Owen. Ianto clung tighter and whimpered.

Owen made soothing noises and kept rubbing his back. "It's ok! Its just Jack. You like Jack."

Ianto shook his head and held onto Owen.

"Oh come on, Jack's your...whatever, let him hold you." Owen coaxed.

Ianto shook his head again, franticly.

Owen frowned, studying Jack briefly, and let out a relieved breath as an idea struck him. "Put you braces back on." He ordered, waggling the very tips of his fingers at the bright red braces hanging from Jack's hips. "I think he associates 'Jack' with 'Braces'."

Jack did as ordered, and Ianto watched intently as he slid them up on to his shoulders. Jack gave him a small smile and held out his hand, "Better?" he asked quietly. The younger man still looked scared, one hand gripping Owen's shirt.

Owen gave Ianto an encouraging nudge, and reluctantly, Ianto let Jack take him, and gently cradle him rubbing his back, making comforting noises.

Owen quickly ran a scanner over Ianto, and let out a breath. "Vitals are all up. Brain isn't any worse then before, but he's screwed up again. Fuck, what the hell was that? He was obviously scared to death, but all his stats were in the basement!"

Ianto ducked his head, tucking it under Jack's neck at Owen's harsh tone, and averting his eyes to the rain lashed window.

Jack shrugged helplessly, eyes wide and probably, he would admit, more than a little scared. "You're the doctor. You tell me!"

Owen shook his head, hissing though his teeth and tossed everything back into the kit, and pushed it under the couch before flopping down, rubbing his eyes under his glasses. "I don't know. Why must he make everything so difficult? He couldn't be a nice normal, text book case for once?"

A third crash of thunder hit, rattling the walls and Ianto made a choked noise and nearly flew from the bed, away from the small window and to the couch. He nearly landed on Owen, wrapping himself around the startled doctor and knocking the breath out of him.

"Ianto! What's wrong?" Jack asked blinked rapidly at his suddenly empty lap. He watched Ianto cling to Owen and couldn't quite understand why the doctor was suddenly Ianto's security blanket, but who was he to upset Ianto more in his condition? If it made him happy, then good.

"Owen." Ianto mumbled into Owen's neck.

"Oh for...Ianto it's fine. I'm not going anywhere, I'm right here. Stay with Jack." Owen said with forced patience, after he got his breath back.

Ianto just held tighter, worming between Owen and the back of the, thankfully large, couch.

Jack held up his hands, approaching them cautiously. "Okay, ok you can stay with Owen. Just loosen up a bit before he passes out." He told him gently, pulling the cushions off the back to make the couch wide enough for two. He reached over and yanked the blanket off the bed.

"It's alright sweetheart." He murmered, ruffling Ianto's hair as the younger man settled down quietly, wedging himself between Owen and the back of the couch.

Once Ianto had gotten himself comfortable Jack pushed against Owen's chest until he lay down too.

"What are you doing?" Owen hissed up at him.

Jack shrugged, laying out the blanket over both of them. "He's scared, upset, and clearly not in his right mind right now. He wants you; he's not letting go of you. What are we going to do? Pry him off and upset him more?"

Owen winced, looking over at Ianto who was watching him with wide pleading eyes. Jack had seen that particular look many, many times. Usually when Ianto was doing something he knew he shouldn't, but hoped he could look cute enough to get away with it.

Jack coughed, hiding a smile behind his fist.

With a sigh, Owen patted Ianto's arm. "Go to sleep Yan. Everything's fine." he reassured the younger man, waiting for Ianto to take his advice before banging his head quietly against the armrest.


	10. Chapter 10

Ianto woke up with a yawn and a mouthful of hair. Hesitantly, he cracked one eye open, and immediately regretted it. Stretching his legs out as much as could on the cramped couch, he let the muddled memories of last night wash over him.

Owen. Rain. Holding on to Owen. Couldn't breathe. Waking up frightened because Owen was trying to get away.

Fuck.

Luckily Owen slept like the dead, making it easy for Ianto to disentangle himself from the smaller man. He crawled off of the couch and tossed a throw over the doctor, pausing briefly to check his pulse. He really did sleep like the dead.

Ianto stumbled to the bathroom, and started to put himself together for the day, pulling out his toothbrush.

God, how was he going to live though this? The constant random...spells of his brain turning to mush, and acting like an idiot. _Cuddling_ with not just Jack, which frankly was weird enough, but _Owen_? No one could accuse him of being the touchy feely type. Jack had complained about that enough. But he had practically glued himself to the two men. He couldn't help it. Could only remember it vaguely. But wasn't aware of it when it happened. Was this how it felt to be possessed?

Ianto gave himself a sharp look in the mirror and spit out the toothpaste, refusing to think about it anymore. He quickly washed his face, and then ducked down, pulling out a set of packaged toothbrushes. He tended to collect them, never quite remembering if he'd need a new one soon. He put them on top of the sink, in plain view, before turning back to the main room.

He decided the only way to cope was to just firmly ignore the situation while he was in his right mind. Breakfast. He should think about breakfast instead. Or maybe cleaning.

Jack was watching him from the bed. Ianto gave him a nod and a slight smile and by the time he had changed out of his wrinkled bedclothes into a pair of ratty jeans and a hoodie Jack had already settled back down, resting if not sleeping. With one eye open more than likely.

Ianto made quick work of the small flat, stashing a pile of dirty clothes in the washer for later and clearing up the mess. He thought briefly about pulling out the mop, but didn't think Jack would stand for it, so he decided to make breakfast instead. It'd distract and relax him. Jack, and probably Owen would enjoy a hot home cooked meal.

He worked easily, humming softly to him self, until he had three plates full of food. It was nice. It had been awhile since he had used his small kitchenette for anything besides coffee and toast. Speaking of …

Ianto cut his eyes over to his lover. The captain never really did sleep, not much really. But he liked to pretend, to see what lengths Ianto would go to wake him up. There was quite a list by now. Jack was laying quietly, eyes resolutely closed. His nose however was twitching at the smell of freshly roasted coffee.

Ianto moved to the bed, slowly crawling over to Jack and straddling the other man's hips, studying his face carefully. Jack's mouth quirked into a quick smile before smoothing out. Ianto paused for several seconds, waiting to see if Jack would break, fingers inching closer to his lover's sides. When movement looked unlikely, Ianto attacked, tickling the vulnerable ribs.

Jack yelped, and Ianto swooped in for a kiss.

"Oh fucking hell! I told you none of that! Am I going to have to chemically castrate you two till Ianto's healed? You're worse then rabbits!"

Ianto jerked up and nearly fell over at Owen's irritated voice. He looked over his shoulder at the older man, losing his balance.

Jack caught Ianto by the waist and eased him to the side. "He was just waking me up Owen. Not a morning person huh?" Jack asked in amusement. He dropped a quick, mostly chaste, kiss to the corner of Ianto's mouth.

If looks could kill, Ianto decided, Jack's head would explode in flames from the glare Owen was giving him.

"He started it!" Jack caved immediately, earning a swat from his lover.

Ianto slid off the bed and fetched Owen's cup of coffee, handing it over as a sort of peace offering.

Owen barely managed to suppress a moan as he drank the still nearly scalding hot coffee in one go. "Oh god. Caffeine..." he flopped back down on the couch with a sigh.

Snorting quietly, Ianto moved the plates and mugs to the small table. "I made breakfast."

Owen squinted and frowned around the flat. "Ianto...have you been cleaning?"

Ianto studied the outdated pattern on his china wear carefully. "Why would you ask that?"

"The place is cleaner?" Owen leaned over the edge of the couch and stuck his head under. "There's not even a dust bunny under here! For fucks sake, Ianto, you're brain damaged! You're supposed to be resting, not cooking and cleaning!"

"French toast!" Ianto said brightly as he pointed to the table, ignoring the fact that Owen was winding up into a rant. Don't think about it, he reminded himself. Don't talk about it. Don't worry about it.

"Ianto!"

"I'm afraid I'm not used to guests," Ianto continued. "I only have two chairs so someone's going to have to sit on the bed."

Jack easily solved the problem by swinging his legs to the side and sitting up facing the table. "That'd be me."

Ianto gave his lover a grateful smile and slid a mug and plate in front of him, then sat down in one of the chairs, nearest the bed.

Owen was still grumbling under his breath but came over and sat down, digging into the plate of food, the thin throw wrapped around his legs.

Over their breakfast Jack studied Owen. "How's your head? Better? Still no signs of concussion?"

"Jack, I've been awake 5 minutes, you're lucky I'm speaking coherently!" Owen argued, stuffing another forkful in his mouth.

"Hmm. We'll check you out again after breakfast."

Owen rolled his eyes. "Yes lets obsess about the healthy one while the addled one, plays house wife. That makes perfect sense!"

"I want to make sure you're not going to slip into a coma or something, and leave me with two people to take care of!" Jack pointed out.

"I don't need to be taken care of! I'm a grown adult!" Ianto snapped.

"A brain damaged adult! Who babbles at the walls and climbs into my lap at four o'clock in the fucking morning." Owen snapped back.

Ianto flinched. He looked down and felt a surge of nausea. Christ.

"I – I don't think I'm hungry." He murmured pushing back from the table, and retreating to the relative privacy of the bathroom, trying to ignore the way his face burned at the thought of himself, so out of control.

He couldn't help it.


	11. Chapter 11

Owen banged on the bathroom door again. He had been standing there for five minutes without so much as a peep from the other side. Jack was behind him, probably glaring.

"Ianto? Ianto! Come on! I said I'm sorry! You know I'm an arse, you know I didn't mean it... come on! Come out!"

Silence.

Jack came up to Owen's side and grasped his arm hissing in his ear. "Are you okay?"

Owen blinked. "Er..yes."

"Good. Act!" Jack whispered harshly, yanking him off balance and then raising his voice. "Owen?! Owen! Are you okay?"

Franticly wind milling his arms to keep his balance, Owen landed against Jack, and took the opportunity to hiss in his ear. "What? I'm fine..." Owen looked at Jack. The man had finally gone insane.

"Oh don't give me that, you just nearly fainted!" Jack directed his answer at the closed door. "You're white as a sheet! You should lay down."

Owen heard a snick as the bathroom door unlocked, swinging open to reveal a concerned face and the doctor finally clicked onto what Jack was doing. He blinked woozily, sagging further into the captain's side, making his voice weak. "I'm...fine. Really. Just a dizzy spell or something..." he cracked one eye open, biting back a smile as Ianto slunk cautiously out of the small bathroom.

"Owen? Are you okay? Did that shelf hurt you worse then we thought?" Ianto grabbed Owen's other side and pulled them over to the couch, pushing Owen to lie down, all the while shooting an accusatory glare at Jack. Big mothering Welsh bastard.

Jack held up his hands and backed off.

"You should lay down." Ianto murmured. He looked around and grabbed his duffel bag from the floor and stuffed it under Owen's feet. Owen winced. When this was over he was holding a first aid refresher.

"No! I'm fine! Really. Ianto, we have scans _showing_ your concussion, you need to lay down."

"No. I'm fine." Ianto reassured, trying to find something else useful to do. When that failed he settled for just brushing at Owen's short hair.

"Ianto. Lay down!"

"I will if you will." Ianto argued crossing him arms over his chest stubbornly.

Owen blinked. Tricky bastard. "Oh fine! I'll lie down! Now go to bed!" Owen ordered pointing to the large piece of furniture.

Ianto grabbed a pillow and lay down on his stomach, his head at the foot of the bed so he could stare at Owen in worry.

Owen stared at Ianto.

Ianto stared at Owen.

Jack cleaned the table off and tidied the kitchen, staying out of it. The captain ran a towel over a clean piece of counter obsessively, worrying at imaginary stains to keep himself busy.

Owen felt time slow to a torturous crawl. In all, it was really fucking boring.

"Would it kill you, to own a television?" Owen broke the silence with a groan, staring around the bare room.

"Never here. No reason to own one."

"I mange to have a nice flat, with actual _things_ in it, and I'm not home much more then you. We have hard jobs where we risk our lives daily. We deserve to be pampered when we go home! Nice furniture, large TVs, huge comfy bed, giant windows with impressive view..."

Ianto shrugged. "I have pillows." he gestured to the pile behind him, and Owen had to admit, it was a fairly obscene amount. He wondered if Ianto made pillow forts.

"It doesn't bother me." Ianto admitted. "I honestly spend most of my time at the hub working. Why have a bunch of things I don't need, that I'll never use?"

Owen tried to think of a reason but Ianto steamed ahead. "Sometimes I don't even get home for days, I just shower and change in the locker room."

"...Sleep?"

"Power naps." Ianto said as he rolled over on his back, head dangling off the foot of the bed so he could still watch Owen.

Owen covered his eyes. "Jack I'm going to shoot him. He's got to be an alien of some kind! He cannot be human! No 26 year old man acts like that!"

Jack threw his dishtowel into the sink. "Um Ianto, maybe you should take some more time off...err buy some...things. Honestly even _I_ have more free time and hobbies, and possessions then you do...it's not healthy." he said gently, sitting down on the edge of the bed next to Ianto, and pulling him up to lean against him. "And neither is hanging upside down with a head injury." He added with a smile, dropping a kiss on his lover's forehead.

Ianto sighed. "Why? I'm happy, what does it matter if it's not your idea of normal, Mr. 'Oh-you-people-and-your-quaint-categories'?"

"Jack can I have your gun? Please?" Owen asked politely. He figured he had a better chance of getting it if he was nice.

"No."

"Dammit."

"I should kick the both of you out. You're lousy house guests." Ianto sulked.

Owen narrowed his eyes at Ianto watching him closely. Sane Ianto didn't sulk.

"Stop it. I'm not going...like that. I'm just… grouchy. You come into my home and do nothing but insult it, and me. It's bloody rude!"

Owen sighed. "Fine. It's lovely. It's wonderful. It's nirvana. I'm going insane from joy and happiness." Owen said in a monotone.

Ianto looked at Jack. "Would it kill Owen with his concussion, if we sedated him, to shut him up?"

"Possibly."

"...Can we do it anyway?"

Jack snorted and kissed Ianto. "Sorry, no."

Owen scowled, then looked at his watch and swung him self up off the couch. Time to actually be a doctor; at least it would kill some time.

He winced, helping his play-acting of being hurt; when he had to catch him self from the head rush. There was a reason he hated being still.

Ianto pushed his self up onto his knees. "Owen! What are you doing?"

"S'getting late. Need to check you out. I _am_ here for a reason, in case you've forgotten." Owen said while he grabbed his bag and started pulling out equipment.

"You're just doing this because you're bored." Ianto accused.

"Okay you got me! I some how gave you brain damage, without leaving a mark on you, then wiped out all of our memories, and got us trapped here, just so I could play doctor on you for my own entertainment!" Owen said earnestly, while he started taking Ianto's vital signs.

"It would serve you right if I had an attack and took you seriously." Ianto threatened him.

"Oh shut up." Owen said shoving a thermometer under his tongue.

"What's that for? Does he feel warm?" Jack asked worriedly, feeling Ianto's forehead.

"No. Just to shut him up." Owen replied with a grin as started running scanners over him.

Ianto glared.

Owen ignored him and finished up his exam quickly, the scanner giving the figurative green light.

"Okay, nothing looks any worse. Vitals are all good, brain damage isn't any worse," He pulled the thermometer out of Ianto's mouth, glancing at it out of habit. "And no fever. So far so good. Not getting any worse."

"Jack should check you now."

Owen rolled his eyes. "Oh for fuc-"

"That sounds like a good idea." Jack interrupted. "Owen lay down. Don't want you fainting again do we?" The doctor was slightly worried that he could read Jack's expressions, because this one clearly said 'do not let Ianto know you're faking, or I will throttle you!'

Owen scowled.

"I do. I like fainting. It's fun and exciting. A thrill a minute!"

"Owen." Jack said levelly.

Owen sighed. He could really use a good invasion about now. Aliens storming the planet so he'd have a reason to run out the door, and not come back. He flopped down on the couch, letting Jack sweep the scanner over him.

Ianto watched closely, nearly hanging off the end of the bed.

After a few minutes Jack smiled brightly. "Everything looks okay! Nothing looks worse," He turned to Ianto, and continued, seriously. "I'm sorry, Ianto but it looks like he should live, to continue to annoy us."


	12. Chapter 12

Jack put the scanners down, and got back on the bed next to Ianto, lifting one arm when prompted so that Ianto could curl against him comfortably. He tried not to worry about it. Ianto had never been much of a cuddler, especially when other people could see, preferring to keep a polite distance in all but the most intimate of situations.

They all fell silent, Owen and Ianto starting some sort of staring contest. Jack spoke up suddenly. "So..." He quickly racked his brain for something to follow that. "Wanna play Marry, Shag, Throw off a Cliff?"

Ianto blinked up at him and said something questioningly in Welsh.

"And we're back to crazy town." Owen declared.

Jack just smiled tightly, hugging Ianto a little closer. "Me, Ianto, Gwen, and Tosh. Marry, shag or cliff?" He asked Owen.

"Oh come on! Why is Torchwood full of 8-year-old girls? First Gwen and her 'who's the last person you snogged?' and now this!"

"You're the one who keeps whining you're bored. Right Ianto?" Jack tried to draw the younger man into the conversation, but Ianto squirmed away, crawling up the bed, burrowing into his pillows and talking animatedly to the small window all the while.

Jack had always teased Ianto about talking to the furniture before. Cursing at a stuck filing cabinet, or cajoling an espresso maker. Ianto had never expected the furniture to talk back though.

"Well?" Jack prodded, shifting so he could watch Ianto out of the corner of his eye. Maybe carrying on like nothing weird was happening was the way to handle it.

"Right... okay so..." Owen frowned, thinking. "Well, already shagged Gwen, so cliff her, Tosh...she can't cook can she? Cliff then, but maybe shag her before I throw her off," He looked at Ianto and snorted. "Well Ianto makes a great house wife, so marry him I guess. That leaves you."

Jack grinned lecherously. "So you wanna shag me?"

Owen rolled his eyes. "Oh shut up. Its a stupid game."

Ianto suddenly swung his head around and eyed Owen suspiciously. "You want to shag Jack?"

"Game! It's a game! Fine! I'll shag Gwen, and cliff Jack! Is that better? Christ..."

Ianto's eyed grew wider. "You want to kill Jack?"

"Immortal. He'll be fine. It's either shag him or cliff him, and you don't want him shagged."

"No. No Cliffs. You have to shag him! Shag him now!"

Owen blinked then squinted at Ianto, trying to tell, Jack supposed, if Ianto was genuinely being brain melt-y, or just screwing with their heads.

Ianto had come back to the foot of the bed and was tugging on jack's shirtsleeve, looking distressed, bits of Welsh mixing with English. "I don't want Owen to throw you off a cliff! You have to shag him!"

Jack made soothing noises. "Of course. I'll save that for later, when we're really bored. No worries, no cliffs for me."

Ianto didn't look entirely convinced. He reached out grabbing on to Owen's shirtsleeve as well, trying to pull him towards the bed.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Owen yanked his arm free and scurried out of reach. "Yan. I swear. I'm not going to throw Jack off of a cliff. Promise."

Jack threaded his fingers though Ianto's hair, whispering gently into his ear while he held him. "It's okay sweetheart. I promise, Owen's not going to throw me off any cliffs. Everything is okay."

After a tense moment Ianto relaxed, and nodded, nuzzling against Jack's throat. "Good." He blinked, frowned and started speaking in French.

Owen and Jack exchanged helpless looks.

Ianto made a frustrated noise and tried again.

Jack caught his name somewhere in the worried garble and pulled back. "Ianto? I know it's hard, but please try to translate that into English?" he coaxed gently, hands on either side of Ianto's face.

Ianto grit his teeth with the effort. "Jack, I feel...sick."

"OWEN!" Jack yelled spinning.

Owen was already up and at Ianto's side with his medical bag. "There's a love, you going to throw up? "

It took a few seconds, but Ianto finally shook his head.

"Good, good. Than just lay back for me, yeah?"

Jack was always surprised when Owen's bedside manner made a sudden appearance. The doctor did have one, though he hid it very well. Now Owen's voice was gentle, as he rolled Ianto on to his back, and began looking him over again.

Ianto whimpered unhappily and clutched Owen's shirt hem. His eyes were clouded with confusion

"Jack, go find a wash cloth or something, and get it cool and damp for me, yeah?" Owen kept the gentle tone, while he stroked Ianto's hair off his face, and checked his scanners.

Jack bolted to the small kitchenette, dimming the overhead light as he went.

"Sick? Nauseated?" Owen asked looked at Ianto's face.

Ianto just stared at him uncomprehendingly.

"Okay, Well obviously you're sick. I'm going to give you an anti-emetic. You should feel better soon." Owen told him pulling the right needle from the bag. He prepared Ianto's arm quickly, giving a soft warning before he sunk the needle into a vein.

Ianto cried out at the sharp pain, managing to sound both betrayed and accusing, but his grip on Owen tightened.

"Sorry." Owen muttered, rubbing the skin above the puncture wound.

Jack came back, and laid the cloth over Ianto's forehead. "Sweetheart? Feeling any better?"

"Give the drugs a minute to kick in." Owen said, recapping the needle and tossing it onto the table, earning a muddled glare from Ianto.

Owen rolled his eyes. "Some things never change. I'll call Tosh and have her bring by a sharps container or something, alright?"

Ianto nodded and closed his eyes, then winced.

"Ianto? Are you in pain?" Owen asked in concern.

Again Ianto latched on to a word. "Pain. I'm sorry. I-I'm such a pain. This is my fault." He kept his eyes closed for another moment, while Jack continued to stroke his hair.

When he opened his eyes again they were a little clearer.

"Back with us?" Jack asked, blowing out a relieved breath when Ianto nodded.

"Still think it's your fault?" Owen asked, taking the younger man's wrist to check his pulse.

Ianto nodded again.

"Idiot. You're not being a trouble. Or an inconvenience. Doctor here. Vows to help, blah, blah, blah. It's my job, you stupid git. It's not your fault you're sick. You're hurt."

Owen carefully grabbed Ianto's jaw, tilting his head to look him in the eye. "That's what happens. It's not your fault you're hurt." He said slowly.

"How do you know?" Ianto asked.

"I just do. Now be quiet, and sleep."

"But I really am sorry. I hate to be such a bother..."

Jack leaned down, kissing the small stripe of skin visible above the folded cloth on Ianto's forehead. "Ianto, love, you're not a bother. It's okay. Really. Just go to sleep, sweetheart. You'll feel better when you wake up."

"But-"

"Don't make me get the sedatives out." Owen warned.

Ianto snorted softly in amusement, and gave in, the medicine working quickly to make him drowsy and relaxed.


	13. Chapter 13

Jack smacked at Owen's legs silently as he rang up Tosh. The doctor grumbled but pulled himself up, making room for Jack on the couch. The seating space was a little limited, especially after Owen had declared the bed off limits due to the fact that Ianto popped up like a wack-a-mole anytime either of them so much as got near it.

Owen listened in to the one sided conversation, vaguely considering having the couch all to himself again. Maybe if he kicked Jack?

"Tosh? Hey everything ok? No problems? Good." Jack nodded, and Owen wondered if he knew how stupid he looked.

"We're still at Ianto's, uh and speaking of that, could you or Gwen drop off a TV or something on your way home? Owen and I are going to wind up in blood shed soon if we don't have some form of amusement. Yeah, no he doesn't have a TV. It is scary, yes. So? Good, see you then."

Jack snapped his cell phone closed. "Gwen or Tosh'll be over soon with a something to keep us from going insane."

Owen sighed and went back to studying the ceiling. "Hope it's soon. I think I'm starting to snap already. Before you know it I'll be rocking in the corner, writing on the walls 'All work, no play make Owen go crazy'." It had been a really long fucking day. At least Ianto got to sleep through must of it.

Jack snorted and swatted at his head. "You are such a drama queen."

"Well Ianto's out, so not like we even have the crazy Ianto show to entertain us."

Jack gave him a sudden hard glare.

"Oh don't give me that look. It's not like there's anything else to do when we can't poke the crazy person." Owen was firmly of the belief that anything that couldn't be understood or controlled should be laughed at. "They used to do that for centuries before they suddenly decided it was wrong to poke crazy people and giggle."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yes, you are just so more sensitive and caring. Your love of humanity is stunning I think I might just go into a diabetic coma from the sweetness over dose."

"Well at least poking your corpse would give me something to do...wanna try it?"

Jack snorted, and they slipped back into a sort of silence for God only knew how long.

After a while Ianto shifted, curling on to his side and knocking a few pillows off of the bed.

"Is Ianto going to be okay?" Jack asked suddenly. "How long is he going to be like...?" he settled for waving his hand in a vague circle near his temple.

Owen frowned and rubbed his face. "I don't know. It's brain damage. Days. Longer. There's no way to tell at this point. We just have to hope it gets better soon."

"What if it's not?"

"If it's not...well this is going to be a lot fucking harder." Owen shook his head sharply. "We're going to need help, if this is more then a few days. Even if it's not, the two of us can't baby-sit him 24/7. Hell I don't think even the four of us can."

Owen couldn't help but think that if it had been him, or one of the girls, Ianto would have been able to handle it, adding sitter to his list of job titles and still getting the coffees out properly and on time.

"So what do we do?"

"We're gonna have to hire someone. Lots of someones." Owen really didn't like to admit that he had thought about it, but he had been the one to interpret the scans, knew he would have to make some sort of Plan B just in case.

Actually, knowing Ianto, he'd probably approve, and offer up a Plan C, D, and E, one of which would undoubtedly involve a short course in proper body disposal. He could be a ruthless son of bitch when the job called for it.

"We can't take on any more Torchwood personnel-" Jack argued.

"I didn't say that. I was thinking more… home nurses. But it's going to get suspicious if a lot of them start showing up with missing memories." Owen shuddered a little. "And all things considering, Retcon doesn't sound so great at the moment."

Jack had begun to sit up straighter, managing to appear professional without saying anything. It was obvious that Jack was in boss mode.

"Any other options?" the captain said shortly.

Owen swallowed hard and looke d away. He tried to ignore the gnawing guilt that they were thinking of ways to get rid of the tea boy, already, knowing by the hard set in Jack's eyes that he felt the same.

"We can't take him to a psych unit. I mean yeah, anything he babbles about no one will believe, but still he knows too much for us to have him in this state around outsiders. He can't go in the field, or provide support from the hub. He probably shouldn't go into the archives by himself." Owen saw a twitch in Jack's jaw, and sighed. He really didn't want to think about this anymore. "Look, Jack. Honestly, it's too early to worry about this. Give him… a week. Then we can have this conversation again."

Jack winced and looked over at Ianto. "So we just hope he get's better soon..."

"Or at the very least stops going all 'special' on us. The actual concussion _will _take time to fully heal, but hopefully he'll stop having these… episodes."

Jack sighed. "Torchwood one had a whole hospital, just for staff."

"Yeah well they went and got them selves killed, and we're stuck baby sitting our injured people our selves."

Jack gave him a paranoid look. "You're sure your okay? Because we really, really, really can not deal with two of you being down right now..."

Oh for Christ's sake. Owen was starting to miss the Jack that had ordered him back to work while he was still recovering from attempted suicide by Weevil. It was all Ianto's fault of course. He had woken up Jack's inner coddler and then refused to stick around to deal with the consequences. Without the tea boy, Jack had set his worrying sights on the doctor.

Owen flipped him off, not even gracing him with a verbal reply.

"Well good to know, you're your old intelligent self. Where would I be, without that witty banter?" Jack said dryly.

Owen snorted. "Shagging the unconscious tea boy?" he went back to staring at the ceiling, effectively ending the conversation.

From the bed Ianto murmured in his sleep, burrowing deeper into the pile of pillows.


	14. Chapter 14

Jack was used to long periods of inactivity. He didn't mind them; in fact they were sort of nice. Unless, of course it was a long period of inactivity shared with Owen Harper. The doctor had proved incapable of entertaining himself. Fidgeting, then pacing, then waking up Ianto to give him another exam, before going back to pacing and fidgeting. It was annoying, to say the least. And Jack figured he had another five minutes before he could claim justifiable homicide. Ianto had neatly sidestepped the situation by going back to sleep, and the captain was really wishing he had joined him.

There was a light knock on the door, and Owen shot up, flinging it open.

Tosh smiled, entering the flat and blinked as she got a look at the place. "Wow...this is..it?"

Owen nodded. "Dismal isn't?"

"Owen, what happened to your head?" Tosh asked, coming forward, to look at the bandage taped in place near his hairline.

"Ianto's shelf made a attempt on my life. Jack had to put a few stitches in." He shot a look at Ianto on the bed and lowered his voice further, leaning closer to Tosh so she could hear. "I'm faking a concussion to keep Ianto manageable. The mothering distracts him from being too big of a pain in the arse in his lucid times."

Tosh's mouth formed a small 'oh' of understanding as she looked at Ianto, and then quirked into a smile at the site of her usually well dressed co-worker, napping in a hoodie and well worn jeans. Jack grinned as well. That particular image had killed some time nicely earlier in the day.

"Speaking of pains in the arse, Tosh," Jack said suddenly, before he fell into the trap of staring at Ianto for another hour. "TV or something? Cause I'm about this," he held his fingers a hair apart. "close, to strangling Owen."

Tosh laughed, shaking her head. "I bought a laptop full of Owen's movies and things, and I thought about using your credit card to buy a nice large screen TV...but I figured you two might want to get out for a while." She set down the laptop and continued. "I can stay here. You go and pick out what you want. Or what Ianto wants, since it's his flat..."

"I don't want a TV. I don't need one." Ianto mumbled from the bed, shifting and burying his head under a pillow.

"Ianto?" Jack asked cautiously. The younger man had woken up slightly scrambled earlier.

Ianto seemed to know what he was asking. "Sort of." He answered, which Jack had found out earlier meant. 'I'm mostly lucid, but there's still a good chance I'll throw up on you.' That hadn't been fun for any of them.

"Shut up and go back to sleep." Owen interjected. "We'll take it when you're better, if you don't want it, but unless you want your flat covered in blood, when Jack and I go insane and kill each other-"

"I'll win!" Jack decided.

Owen shot Jack a glare. "You're getting a TV for the duration of your head injury."

Ianto made a noise of displeasure, keeping his head hidden.

"Did I yell at you to shag Owen earlier?" he asked suddenly.

Tosh gave a small choked noise, and Jack smirked.

"Yep." He said cheerfully.

"Oh. Hoped that I had dreamed that."

"Nope. Sorry. Tosh is here."

Ianto cursed quietly, then sat up running a hand though his hair, looking embarrassed.

"Hey Ianto. How are you feeling?" Tosh asked gently.

"Tosh. Um hello. I'm fine. Uh Owen was making me rest...injured and all."

Tosh nodded. "I know. Are you feeling any better then you were?"

"Uh. A bit. Have you checked Owen? He got hurt. Jack stitched him up and looked him over, but he's not a doctor...and Owen was dizzy." Ianto told Tosh, looking worried.

Jack nearly fell for it, even knowing that Owen was okay. Ianto was good at deflecting attention away from himself

Tosh glanced over. "They told me. No I haven't but I can if it'll make you feel better."

Ianto nodded.

"My stitching is fine. I do more stitching then Tosh does." Jack muttered, giving an exaggerated pout.

Tosh laughed and looked around for Owen's medical kit, which she spotted and pulled over to the couch, where Owen had flopped back down. "Let me see." She grinned leaning in to whisper. "Don't want to upset Ianto do you?"

Owen hissed though his teeth and scooted over so she could reach him easily, while he pulled his glasses off so they were out of the way.

Ianto frowned, and then shook his head.

"Ianto?" Jack asked hesitantly. He sat down on the bed, reaching out to stroke his lover's arm.

"Nothing. I'm fine. Um I just…. seem to have gotten used to Owen wearing glasses." Ianto admitted, with an embarrassed shrug. "He looks strange without them."

Tosh had pulled the bandage off, and was carefully poking around the stitches. "Looks good. Don't think I could have done better. Clean, no sign of infection." She pulled out a scanner and started running it over Owen. "Not bad. No bleeding, or excess swelling. Vitals are good. I don't think you're going to fall over dead, but you should keep being good and rest."

Owen gave her a death glare, and Jack had to hold back a laugh.

Tosh grinned. "Maybe Jack should go shopping by him self. You could stay here and rest. I'll watch the both of you."

"I think I can handle shopping!"

Ianto frowned. "Owen you don't want to over do it and wind up fainting in the middle of the store or something..."

Owen rolled his eyes. "I had a little bump to the head, I'm not going to pass out buying a TV. It's not like I'm planning to run a marathon!"

Jack smirked. "I think Tosh and Ianto are right, Owen. Can't afford to get you hurt any worse right now."

It was the perfect plan. He could get out, stretch his legs, get away from Owen. Besides, he had always wanted to go shopping for a television.

"You stay here and be good. I'll come home with a TV, and I'll even grab dinner while I'm out." Jack aimed the orders at Owen then leaned over, giving Ianto a kiss goodbye.

"Oi! Stop that! Bloody hell. Tosh, get a bucket of water, would you? I think they're in heat."

Jack rolled his eyes and pulled back, dropping a last kiss on Ianto's forehead. "Be back soon. Try not to kill Owen and Tosh?" he asked, sliding on his coat.

Ianto smiled up at him. "I'll try to restrain my self. If we have to take him to A&E because I've shot him again, we'll leave a note for you."

"Good to know." Jack left in a swirl of his coat, out the door, already compiling a list of Ianto's favorite take out.

OOO

Tosh blinked at the closed door and then turned to the two men. Owen was twitching slightly, his foot refusing to stay still. Ianto was watching her tiredly from the bed.

"So, want to watch a movie? It'll be a bit small, on the laptop, but it'll give us something to do." Tosh suggested looking between Owen and Ianto.

"_God_, yes please!" Owen groaned. "You don't know what it's been like!"

Ianto rolled his eyes. "Owen is such a child..." he said, almost apologetically.

"Yeah. Well I didn't sleep all day." Owen argued.

"Right, well come on." Tosh grabbed the computer bag off of the floor and pulled the laptop out. She glanced around the small flat, and then moved towards the bed. "We'll all sit on the bed. Have to crowd together a bit, but should be okay."

Ianto frowned. "There's no need-"

"Oh shove over." Owen ordered, already climbing into the bed. "We're supposed to be laying down remember?" He reminded Ianto with a smirk.

Ianto scowled at the doctor, but shifted obediently as Owen plastered him self against his side. "You know," he said. "You're going to have to put your glasses back on, or you're not going to see a thing."

"My vision's not _that _bad. They're mostly for reading."

"Tiny screen." Ianto argued.

"_What _is your fetish with my glasses?" Owen complained.

"I don't have a fetish. It's simple logic. The laptop screen is small, do you won't be able to see without them. Then you'll get a headache, and you'll be impossible to deal with."

Tosh grinned and handed Owen his glasses from the couch, while she plugged the laptop into a socket. There was no room on the other side of the bed so she had to carefully climb over them to get to the free space between Ianto and the wall.

Ianto had seemed to be more…touchy since the accident. Maybe the close contact would make him feel more comfortable. She waited to see how close Owen got to the younger man, he had been with Ianto the most after all, and copied him.

A bit of shifting and they were all settled, curled together with the laptop on Ianto's outstretched legs. "There we go! All comfy. What do you want to watch?"

"You downloaded from my computer right?" Owen asked.

"Not porn!" Into said instantly. "I am not watching anything off Owen's computer, I know him too well! Nothing but porn!"

"I have things other then porn on my computer!"

"Since when?"

"Since forever. Just because _you're _a perv who only looks at the porn on other people's computers-"

Tosh clamped a hand over Ianto's mouth before he could retort, spurring the argument on. "Face it." She said. "We work for Torchwood. We're all warped. Now pick a movie."

"Alien." Owen suggested.

"NO!" Tosh and Ianto snapped in unison.

Owen huffed. "Oh sure tell me to pick, then yell at me..." he studied the file showing the various movies saved, and tried to think what they might all agree on. "Uh…Princess Bride?"

"That'll work." Tosh said clicking on it.

Ianto nodded and shifted slightly, rearranging a pillow and settling back as the movie started.

"You know." He said, as the movie started, jiggling the laptop a little as he scratched one foot with other. "I don't think I've ever seen this."


	15. Chapter 15

Jack juggled his end of the large television, freeing one to knock hard against Ianto's door. No one answered. He gave the taxi driver an embarrassed smile, and knocked again. Still no reply. Ok he hadn't actually believe Ianto about the shooting Owen thing but maybe... Ianto didn't actually have his gun with him, did he?

The driver waited patiently, shifting the weight from hand to hand, an impatient, confused look on his face.

"Sorry. Boyfriend's a heavy sleeper." Jack offered in way of explanation.

He looked back, intending to ask his new friend to lower the box so he could get his keys out, only to be met by a stony glare. The driver shoved the box at Jack before turning on his heel and hurrying down the hall.

"Thank You!" Jack yelled out, awkwardly setting the TV on the floor.

Maybe he shouldn't have led the man to believe he'd get an extra large 'tip'. How else was he supposed to get the new set to Ianto's flat though?

He rummaged through his pockets and unlocking the door, before poking his head in to assess the situation. He grinned. On the bed three bodies were tangled together sound asleep. As he watched Ianto's foot twitched slightly.

Jack chuckled quietly, and picked one end of the television back up, sliding it inside, and parking it in front of the dresser. He grabbed the bag of take away from the hall, and shut the door.

Dropping the takeout on the table quietly, he watched the three sleep. Owen was closest to him, glasses fallen off from where his face was pressed against Ianto's chest, one leg throw over Ianto's. Ianto in the middle, laptop still playing on his legs, and his head was tilted to the side. One of his arms was curled around Owen, the other around Tosh. Tosh was curled up in a ball against Ianto's other side, the power cord draped over her side.

Jack desperately wished he had a camera, because it was the cutest thing _ever_. He doubted Ianto had one close by. Instead he cleared his throat.

Tosh's eyes opened at thee noise. She squeaked quietly and pulled away from Ianto, blushing.

Jack grinned wider, giving her a wink.

"Hey Jack. When'd you get back?" She asked trying to sound casual, while she straightened her clothes and hair, untangling herself from the cord.

"Toshiko Sato. And here I thought I was safe leaving the boys when you. How was I to know, you'd ravish them while I was gone? The least you could of done was record it..." Jack tsked shaking his head sadly.

Tosh blushed, and Jack couldn't resist teasing her more. "Just look at the poor things." Jack gestured to Ianto and Owen, who were curling closer together while they talked. "You tired them out!"

Tosh caught the laptop as Ianto shifted and it tilted and fell off his legs. She shut the lid carefully as set it to the side. "Sorry Jack, I just couldn't help myself."

Jack grinned watching the two men sleep, then frowned. "How's Owen's head? Really? I checked a few times, but I'm not a doctor... did I miss something? He's not..."

"He's fine. There's the cut, but you did a pro job stitching it, no sign of concussion or anything." She flashed a slightly evil grin. "Though if Ianto asks the poor thing is slightly concussed and needs bed rest."

Jack chuckled, but still looked worried as he watched Owen. "He's sleeping. He slept all night, he shouldn't be tired this early."

Tosh shrugged. "He's bored out of his mind. Just be glad he's not whining anymore."

"Hm. This morning, I was awake and watching when Ianto woke up, rather like that, and was untangling from Owen. He didn't wake up at all. Ianto actually checked his pulse to make sure he wasn't dead. And Ianto should have woken up as soon as the key scraped the lock."

Tosh laughed and shook her head. "You are so cute when you're mother henning." Tosh reached down and pressed her fingers against Owen's throat, looking at her watch. "Pulse is fine. Scanner?" Jack pulled it out of Owen's med kit and handed it to her, and watched her run it over Owen slowly head to toe. "He could use gaining a few pounds, and drink a little less. Jack, he's okay. Some people are just deep sleepers. And Ianto's had a tough day. Do you want me to try to wake them up, if you're that worried?"

"Should anyway. Got dinner."

Tosh leaned over shaking Owen's shoulder gently. "Owen? Owen, come on time to wake up!" Owen grunted and curled further into Ianto, who blinked, and startled awake suddenly. His hand went for his missing ankle holster as he stared at the two figures hovering above him.

"Whoa! Easy." Jack said, pulling Tosh back far enough that Ianto didn't feel crowded.

Ianto glanced from the scanner in Tosh's hand to Owen trying to crawl into his side. "Is something wrong?" His eyes widened. "Is Owen's concussion worse? Owen? Owen wake up!"

Owen grumbled and shifted, and Ianto let out an annoyed huff.

"Paging Dr Harper! Dr Harper, you're needed!"

Owen's eyes snapped open and he was stumbling out of bed before he was even half awake. He froze and looked around in confusion. "What? Where-" his eyes landed on Ianto. "...I hate you." Owen shook his head rubbing his eyes. "What time is it?"

Ianto shrugged and wiped at his own face.

"About 8. Have a nice nap? You looked comfy." Jack answered and gave him an amused look.

Owen stared at him blankly then got distracted by the bag of food. "What'd you get? I'm starving."

"Chinese. Got our usual orders."

"Great!" Owen said happily, pulling the containers out.

Ianto frowned up at Owen, and glanced at Tosh. "Is he ok?"

Owen looked over and spotted the scanner and sighed. "Brains leaking out my ears yet?"

"Nope, not yet. You're stable. I think you'll live." Tosh answered, already digging into her meal. Jack grabbed his food and set beside Ianto on the bed.

"Check Ianto yet?" Owen asked, not waiting for an answer, already taking the scanner from her and running it over Ianto.

Owen made non-committal noise. "Well, it's not getting worse. How you feeling?"

Ianto thought for a minute. "Alright. Not feeling sick anymore. I haven't had a...attack for a while now. Maybe it's over?"

"Hm. Can always hope, but I wouldn't bet money on it. If you're not gonna hurl, feel up to eating?"

"Could eat a horse, honestly." Ianto admitted.

"Well let's get you fed then. Chinese." Owen said grabbing Ianto's order and popping it down in front of him.

"It's Chinese?" Ianto asked uncertainly, curling into Jack's side. "So horse is a good chance then." He said, accepting his food, poking at his plate with a pair of chopsticks.

Tosh wrinkled his nose. "Ianto!"

"Tofu." Jack said around a mouthful. They were all still on a temporary vegetarian kick, until they could be fairly sure there was no more alien meat in the take out.

"Good boy. Remind me to give you a cookie later." Ianto said before taking a bite.

Jack leer then frowned. "Wait do you mean cookie or..."

"No sex! How many times do I have to say this? The only thing he better be getting, is something out of a oven!"

"I have to bake?" Ianto questioned with a grin, popping a small ball of rice into his mouth. "I was just going find something in the cupboard..."

"Just eat your dinner." Owen sighed.

They all ate, chatting quietly about goings on at the Hub. It had been a slow day, the highlight of which had been Gwen and Tosh flipping a coin to decide who fed the Weevils, and who cleaned their cages.

Eventually though, they noticed Ianto had stopped listening. He had curled even further into Jack and was staring at the table, his chopsticks held loosely in one hand.

"Shit." Owen cursed "Yan?"

There was no answer, and Owen reached over, carefully grabbing Ianto's jaw and forcing his head up to meet his eyes.

Ianto mumbled something in Welsh, tugging away from the doctor's grip and tucked his head under Jack's neck, unfocussed eyes staring at the table.

Tosh stared wide-eyed while Jack and Owen turned back to their food.

"Uh does he do that often?" Tosh asked worriedly.

"Yeah. Not that bad actually." Owen said, spearing a piece of tofu. "Normally about now, he'd be in a screaming argument with the wall or something. A little quiet Welsh and staring into space is nothing."

"Oh." Tosh said quietly. Jack nodded, stroking the back of Ianto's neck with his free hand.

Suddenly Ianto twitched and blinked. "I- um-" He blinked again. "Did I miss something?" he asked quietly.

"Nope. Finish your dinner." Owen said mildly, not bothering to look up, pushing the plate a little closer to the younger man.


	16. Chapter 16

After eating Tosh helped them set up the new TV. Ianto still wasn't too happy about the decision, but no one had actually bothered to consult him. He curled up on the bed to watch the proceedings, taking a certain vengeful pleasure in the trouble it was causing.

Jack had gone all out. It was a flat, wide screen, 38-inch, hi-definition plasma. Owen had nearly had an orgasm when he saw it. Then almost gave himself a hernia lifting it up to the dresser.

Jack looked unbearable pleased with himself.

"For gods sake! What were you thinking?" Ianto grumbled. "I tell you I don't need a TV, so you buy the largest thing on the market?"

"Did not." Jack argued. "They came larger. I went with a medium one." Jack gave the TV a pat, as Tosh stepped back and flipped it on.

"Tada! We have television!" And some extras." She added, pointing to a small silver box attached to one side. "Curtsey of Torchwood." She aimed the remote at the set, flipping through it until she came up with a CCTV feed showing Myfanwy puttering about in her nest, weaving a freshly shredded lab coat into the comfortable pile.

Tosh blinked, and looked at the time in the bottom corner, then winced. "I'm going to take off. Have to be up early to feed the herd and everything. They TV is all hooked up, you know how the plug the laptop into, to watch movies right?"

Owen made an affirmative noise, already playing with the remote. He paused briefly when Torchwood's shower room came up.

"Good." She grabbed her bag and pecked Ianto on the cheek. "Feel better soon Ianto. Gwen and I miss you!"

Ianto smiled faintly as Tosh swept out, leaving him, once again, alone with Jack and Owen.

Owen was sitting on the end of the bed happily playing with the remote, changing settings, figuring out how everything worked and Jack had turned his attention to stuffing left overs into the small fridge. Ianto watched, all right, supervised, nodding in satisfaction as Jack finish cleaning up and joined Ianto and Owen on the bed. "So, we gonna watch something?"

"Well we can't till you hook the computer up." Ianto said a little more sharply than he intended, as a sudden stab of pain hit him right behind the eyes.

"Yes Sir." Jack saluted in amusement, and went to the computer sitting on the couch, and connected the wires from the TV to the back. He looked up at the TV turned in a computer monitor, and started scrolling though the movie list. "Okay, any opinions?"

"Owen has the worst taste on the planet." Ianto supplied. "Tosh should have taken someone else's files."

"My tastes are fine!" Owen argued, swatting at Ianto's leg.

Ianto shut his eyes tightly against the pain. "You have bloody well nothing but sci-fi and fantasy! We _live _sci-fi! Why would you want more of it on your off hours?"

"I find them hilarious."

"Why not comedy then? Or horror, or bloody well anything but aliens, which we deal with all day?" Ianto reached up to rub his temple.

"I have those too! And no horror for you! You'll go all batty and wind up bawling like a little girl." Owen pointed out.

"I will not!" Ianto was at least thankful for the fact that Owen was ignoring his headache.

"Whatever." Owen clearly did not believe him.

Ianto scowled at the doctor, then titled his head to one side, reading the screen. "What is 'Dr. Giggles'? Let me guess...porn?"

"Horror movie. Serial killer cuts stupid teenagers hearts out because his mother died of a heart condition. And he giggles. A lot. It's...weird. But Holly Marie Combs is hot." Owen said squinting at the TV.

"Owen, for gods sake, either put your contacts in, or put on your glasses. You're going to go blind." Ianto ordered, exasperated. He briefly entertained the idea of throwing something at the lights. They were too bright, and shattered glass would be a small price to pay.

"I thought that was masturbating, that made you go blind?" Owen asked with a grin, while he stood and went into the bathroom to put his contacts in.

"I think that's hairy palms." Jack said, lifting his voice to be heard in both rooms.

"It's both. ...Why are we having this conversation?" Ianto demanded.

"You started it." Owen said coming back out, and made him self comfortable on the bed, stealing a pillow from behind Ianto.

"I did n-" Ianto sucked in a breath, and let it out slowly. "I'm surrounded by children. Can't you two grow up?"

"Awww but moooom! I don't wanna!" Jack whined playfully.

"If I was your mother, you'd be grounded for the next century." Ianto muttered.

"Take away his toys. That'll learn 'em." Owen told him nodding wisely.

Ianto's head throbbed. "Pick. A. Movie!"

Jack yelped and clicked, then climbed into bed next to Ianto. Ianto burrowed into him, using his shoulder to block out some of the light, watching the screen with one eye.

"What'd you pick?" Owen asked.

Jack shrugged. "I have no clue. I just clicked. It'll be a surprise."

They watched the screen in trepidation,

"Men In Black? Men In Black? For gods sake Owen..." Ianto groaned, turning his head to block out the movie.

"What? I like it!" Owen huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Ianto sighed and wiggled to the end of the bed, getting off and breathing a sigh of relief as his headache faded, just as quickly as it had started. Maybe he had just been lying down too much.

"Ianto? Where are you going?" Jack asked with a frown.

"Making popcorn. I feel like having some, and I'm pretty sure I have a box in the cupboard." Ianto said opening the door. After a brief search he surfaced with his prize. It was slightly old but it should do.

"You should be resting. Let me do it. You go lay down." Jack said as got up and tried to take the box out of Ianto's hand.

"Jack I swear to god." Ianto groaned. "I will throw this box at your head if you do not stop! I've been laying down all day." He snatched the box, but Jack prevailed, taking it out of his hands.

"Ianto, you're hurt! You need to rest so you'll get better!" Jack said gently, looking like he wanted to physically pick Ianto up and put him back in bed. Ianto planted his feet firmly on the floor and growled.

"Jack leave him." Owen ordered. "He hasn't had any problems with dizziness, lightheadness, vertigo, or anything like that. If he wants to make popcorn let him."

Jack glared at Owen and Ianto smacked the captain's hand to get his popcorn box back. "_You_, go back to bed. I'll be back with the popcorn in a couple minutes."

Jack scowled and muttered, but went back to bed obediently.

A few minutes later Ianto was climbing back into bed as well, poking Jack to move over so he wouldn't have to climb over him. Jack scooted over next to Owen, and Ianto passed the bowl of popcorn as they settled in to watch the movie.

An hour and a half later and Ianto was out of bed again, sorting though his closet, while Jack and Owen watched the sequel. He had gotten up to make another batch of popcorn, and then hadn't felt like getting back in bed. The closet had beckoned to him.

He could feel Jack's eyes burning into his back, and knew he was just biting his tongue wanting to try to talk him into lying back down. Ianto frowned at the row of white shirts.

"Ianto? Come on. Come back to bed. You shouldn't be working this hard right now."

"Jack! I'm sorting my closet, not scrubbing the flat with a toothbrush!"

"You still need rest." Jack argued stubbornly, the annoyance in his voice overshadowing the gentleness.

Ianto ignored his lover, turning to Owen instead. "Would you, _please_, tell him I'm not going to fall over dead?"

"Not getting into it. I can't even convince him, _I'm_ not going to fall over dead." Owen said refusing to look away from the TV, as he picked at the bowl of popcorn.

"See? And his concussion is far less severe then yours. You should lay down." Jack tried to reason.

"Jack! I've been lying down all day! If I don't move, I'm going to get bedsores, and go insane! And if I go insane, I'm taking you with me!" Ianto threatened.

Jack sighed, and slid off the bed, coming over to Ianto, and reaching out to rest his hands on the younger man's hips. "Ianto, I love you and I'm worried about you. I want you to get better."

Ianto grabbed Jack by the head and pulled him in for a kiss, earning them a good yell, and a handful of popcorn from Owen.

"Jack I love you too, but no matter what you seem to think, my bed does not have magical healing powers. Laying down till I go insane from restlessness will not make me heal any faster."

Jack pulled Ianto to his chest hugging him, and rested his chin on Ianto's shoulder. "You don't know. It could." Jack's voice sounded petulant.

Ianto sighed, and nuzzled into Jack's neck. "If you feel like helping me, you can always pick up that popcorn Owen just threw all over my floor." He said lightly.

"Will you lay down?"

"Yes." He waited until Jack knelt down, and started picking up the spilt food. "Later."

Jack glared up at him from the floor, and Ianto turned back to a tray of rolled ties. He'd just finish this one thing, and then maybe he could get Owen to put in that movie again, the one about the princess and pirate. He had missed the ending.


	17. Chapter 17

Owen kept one eye on the bathroom door, only half paying attention to the horror movie playing on the TV. Ianto was in the shower, using up all the hot water

He wasn't too happy with leaving Ianto alone in there. What if his brain took another vacation? He probably couldn't hurt himself. Could he?

It was just the two of them for the day. Jack was at the hub, getting some work done, while Owen stayed with Ianto to keep an eye on him. He had gone in yesterday, but Jack had kept him busy with constant, worried phone calls.

Actually, Jack had been surprisingly well behaved today. Hadn't called in nearly thirty minutes. Owen looked at his watch, and then put his full attention on the bathroom door. Right before Ianto had gone into the bathroom.

Ianto has insisted he needed a shower, he felt disgusting and he was having one. Owen couldn't really argue with that logic, so he had given his blessings, and hadn't heard a peep for half an hour, with the shower running about half that time.

Owen pushed him self up off the end of the bed and went to the bathroom door, banging on it lightly. "Ianto? You almost done in there? Ianto? I said no sex! Wanking counts!"

When he got no response, not a scrap of sarcasm, nothing, Owen's heart stumbled and went into double time. "Ianto! Answer me, or I'm coming in there!" Owen didn't wait, he turned the handle, which was thankfully unlocked, per his demand, and jumped into the steam filled room.

Owen sighed while he pulled his glasses off and wiped the condensation off with his shirt, before putting them back on. Yup. Ianto was scrambled again. He was suddenly glad that he had opted for glasses that morning. Scrambled Ianto seemed more comfortable with him wearing them.

The younger man was standing in the shower, happily babbling at the stream of water, spraying over him. Or maybe he was chatting up the shampoo bottle. Who knew? Owen recognized the language as French. Evidently bathroom fixtures didn't speak the native tongue.

"Ianto? Come on, I think you're clean enough. Let's get you out of there, and dried off and dressed, yeah?" Owen coaxed, flapping the curtain slightly to get his attention.

Ianto flung open the curtain and smiled brightly at him. "Owen! Hi Owen! Come on in, we're having a wonderful conversation!" Ianto grabbed his shirtsleeve with a wet hand and tried to drag him into the small stall.

Owen resisted. "Ah no, thanks. Come on, you can finish your conversation some other time." He winced as the warm water splattered him.

"No, no, no! We're having a lovely chat. I'm quite fine."

Owen sighed, and peeled Ianto's hand off his arm, tucking it back into the stall, and closed the curtain again. He rubbed his forehead, and leaned back against the sink. "Alright, Mate. You finish your conversation, I'll just wait over here."

"Not Coming?" Ianto asked, peeking at Owen through the small gap.

"No." Owen crossed his arms. "Now hurry up or you'll use all the hot water."

The younger man shrugged, and turned back to the warm spray, picking up the apparent conversation where he left off.

000

Ianto was chatting pleasantly with the warm water. It knew all about Cardiff, and told him all the places it had been. One drop had remembered seeing Ianto before, that time Jack had taken him to the hotel with the Jacuzzi. It remembered tracing down Jack's spine, being licked away. Ianto had blushed, and the drop had laughed as it slid down the drain.

Suddenly the warm water flowing over him stuttered and chilled. His breath caught in his throat, and his heart raced as the cold water beat down on him.

Water. Cold. Rain

"Ianto?" Distantly, as if far away, Ianto heard someone call his name. He tried to focus on it, but a whimper escaped his throat as he got a flash of wide, terrified eyes, soft blonde hair, weak, dying gasps.

Ianto sobbed and scrambled back, away from the water. His back hit the wall, feet flying out from under him as he lost his balance. He curled up, wrapping his arms around his knees.

Oh God! Oh God! Something happened! Something awful! He couldn't remember, why couldn't he remember?

"Ianto!"

Someone was calling his name again. Scared. Frightened. Of him?

He ignored them, and desperately raked at his mind trying to remember what he'd forgotten.

Pills. Tosh crying. Owen so worried.

Soft wet skin. Pleading. Screaming. Quiet splashes as she slipped into the bay.

Retconned. They'd all been retconned. He knew that much. Oh...oh God! It was his fault! He'd done something! Something awful, and he'd retconned them all.

He tucked his face against his knees, rocking as he tried to hide from the cold rain. Her throat had seemed so small in his hands.

He made a low, keening noise and clawed at his head, grabbing at the memories inside.

"Ianto! Jesus fucking Christ, Ianto!"

Ianto yelled as the distant voice lashed out, grabbing his wrists. He franticly tried to fight off the attacker, kicking and twisting, and slamming into the tile.

The cold rain continued to fall. Someone was screaming. Someone with soft blonde hair, frightened, beautiful eyes, a tiny fragile throat.

Ianto screamed, drowning her out, hands clenching in his hair.


	18. Chapter 18

"Ianto! IANTO! It's ok! You're okay! It's me! It's Owen! Ianto calm down! You're safe!" Owen's heart was galloping in his chest, beating double time as he fought to keep the struggling man under control, pinning his hands against his chest.

"Ianto! Calm the fuck down."

Ianto had gone so suddenly from cheerfully chattering away, to totally freaking out, that Owen's head was still spinning, not helped much by the accidental forehead butt Ianto had given him as he fought and screamed.

"Ianto!" Owen yanked at Ianto's hands again, pulling them away from the deep scratches already decorating the Welshman's temples. Ianto growled and bucked.

"Ianto! Shh. Shh. You're okay. Just calm down, Shh." Cooing apparently worked. Owen kept it up, leaning over to turn off the icy water that was soaking them both. "Shh Ianto, it's alright. There we go, nothing to scream about. You're okay."

Owen carefully dropped Ianto's hands and sat back on his heels, taking a deep breath. "All right calm. I need to stay calm. Both of us freaking out will not help the situation." He watched Ianto who was crying and rocking, arms wrapping around him self as he tried to disappear into the tile. Well at least he wasn't scratching him self anymore. Or screaming. Christ. Owen had nearly pissed himself when that started.

Normally in a situation like this he'd be reaching for the sedatives, and restraints, but with Ianto's head injury, he couldn't risk sedating him, and the restraints would only upset him more. He had to get Ianto calmed down, out of the shower, and dried off and warm before he caught pneumonia, or hurt him self.

Yeah. Easy enough.

"Ianto? Yan, can you hear me? It's Owen. You know me. You trust me right? Whatever you're seeing? _It's not real_. You're safe. We're in your flat, in your bathroom. Nothing's going to hurt you. Come on, mate. Look at me. Talk to me." Owen kept talking, hoping to get though to Ianto. It didn't seem to be doing much good.

"Come on mate! You don't want to spend all day in the bathroom do you?" Owen was hoping if he could get Ianto out of the shower, he would calm down, and maybe get back to normal again. Sadly his coaxing didn't seem to be working. He tried touching Ianto's arm and was relieved that at least Ianto didn't try to fight him off.

"That's it. Come on." He tugged lightly on Ianto's arm, only to be met by resistance. "You're not going to move?"

A slight headshake. Not even eye contact. Ianto's face was firmly tucked against his knees. The sobs had slacked off.

Fuck it.

Owen pulled his mobile from his pocket and hit the speed dial for Jack. "Jack? Yeah hanging up. Call me right back." He slid the phone out into the other room, where a second later it rang. Indiana Jones theme. Only his captain's number had that ring tone

"Ianto! It's Jack! You want to talk to Jack right? Come on get out of the shower, and we'll go say hi!"

Ianto seemed to wake up a bit more, though his eyes were still clouded.. "J-Jack?"

"Yeah, Jack. Come on, Yan." Owen helped pull Ianto up and out of the shower, and grabbed a towel to wrap around him, while Ianto headed for the mobile phone at a stumble. He picked it up and fumbled around with the buttons until Jack's angry tinny voice blasted from the small speakers.

Ianto curled up on the floor, leaning against the foot of his bed, and listened to Jack yelling. He didn't talk, just cradled the phone, still sniffling.

Owen reached over the hit the speakerphone then started to towel Ianto off. "Jack, you're on speaker phone. Ianto's scrambled again. Needed to use you as bait to get him out of the shower."

"He's scrambled? What happened? Is he okay? Why is he crying? Give me 10 minutes and I'll be there!" Jack's voice was tense, and Owen could hear him starting to gather his things, to rush back.

He doubted Jack bursting into the room was really going to help. Jack could be downright frantic when it came to Ianto, and Owen didn't want to risk Ianto getting worked up again because Jack was panicking.

"Calm down! He's alright. He's...not all here, but he's out of the shower, and I'm getting him dried off and calmed down. That last thing we need is you breaking the door in. Give me half an hour or so to get him settled."

"Ianto?" Jack ignored the doctor in favor of his lover. "Forget Owen. Ianto, do you want me to come home? I can be there in a few minutes, if you want me!"

Ianto gave Owen a wide-eyed, slightly panicked, 'what do I do?' he mouthed.

Owen shrugged, draping the towel over Ianto's head and ruffling his wet hair. No one ever listened to the doctor. "It's up to you, Yan."

"I- uh."

"Why don't we compromise, and leave the speaker phone on, alright? Jack can hear us, we can hear him. That work for both of you?"

Ianto nodded hesitantly, adding an affirmative in... Spanish. That was new. Owen quickly shed his own wet clothes and toweled off quickly.

"_Fine_." Jack growled sounding not at all pleased.

Ianto stared at the phone, startled, and then reached out, tracing his fingers over Jack's face, prominently displayed next to his mobile number.

Looking around, Owen found yesterday's jeans and yanked them on. "Good. Alright, off the floor with you Yan." Owen said, tugging lightly on Ianto to get him moving.

Owen got Ianto over to the bed, and tapped his fingers against his leg looking from Ianto, to the closet and back. Too much trouble trying to dress him. He just tucked him into bed starkers under his pile of blankets, and inspected the scratches Ianto had given himself. Nothing a dip into the med kit wouldn't fix.

Ianto's free hand, not clutching the phone, reached out, fingers tangling in the belt loops of Owen's jeans. He gave the older man a puppy eyed look. "Princess?"

"What?" Jack demanded. "Does he want me? Ianto, do you want me to come back?"

Owen rolled his eyes despite Jack not being able to see. "Princess Bride. He's developed a fixation on the movie since he watched it."

"...Oh." Jack sounded disappointed.

"Princess." Ianto said again, carefully setting the phone on the pillow next to him and tugging at Owen with both hands.

"I really do think he's getting better Jack. Whatever spooked him is gone. He's getting back to normal weird."

Ianto made an impatient noise and yanked hard on Owen's belt loops.

"Alright, alright. But you got to let go of me so I can go put it on."

Ianto looked from his hand around Owen's jeans, up to his face and down again, frowning. He looked at the TV, then at Owen and pouted as he slowly uncurled his fingers.

Owen patted him on the head and went to put the movie on for him, before heading towards his medical supplies.

"Jack. Try and distract Ianto will you? I have a feeling he's not going be too happy to meet Mr. Peroxide. I'd rather not have him scratching _me_."


	19. Chapter 19

Jack stopped him self as the door, fiddling nervously with the key Ianto had given him months before. No bursting in. Calm. Project calm. Owen would strangle him if he got Ianto all riled up again, after spending the last few hours getting him calm and settled down.

He could do calm.

Jack slowly pushed the door open and despite his worry, had to grin at the sight. Owen was sitting on the bed, stripped to the mattress, leaning back against the mound of, equally bare, pillows. Ianto was under the throw that usually hung on the couch, curled up against Owen's side, using him as a pillow while they watched the movie.

Owen looked up, still rubbing large soothing circles over Ianto's covered back, and gave Jack a reassuring smile, then shook Ianto lightly "Oi. Yan. Jack's home."

Ianto's head swiveled up and he grinned brightly as he caught sight of his lover. "Jack!"

Jack was slightly stunned to suddenly have an arm full of warm naked Ianto, wrapped around him. Instinctively he reached out, holding on to the younger man as Ianto pushed himself even closer. With a frown he noticed the deep scratch marks on either side of Ianto's face.

"Ianto! I said stay in bed! Christ..." Owen groaned pushing him self up off the mattress.

Ianto happily nuzzled Jack's neck. "Jack." He explained simply.

Jack threaded his fingers though Ianto's hair, and ran his other hand over Ianto's back. "Hey, Yan. Feeling better?"

Ianto made a vague humming sound and kept snuggling against him, worming his arms under Jack's coat.

"Bed Ianto. Don't want you getting sick again, do we?" Owen said, taking Ianto's elbow gently.

"He got sick?" Jack asked, looking Owen up and down. The doctor was wearing a pair of Ianto's old pajama bottoms, tied tightly, and a few sizes too large.

"Uh… long story. Bed first. Come on Yan. Let's finish the movie." Owen nudged Ianto again, spurring the young man into action.

"Oh! Ianto's eyes got wide and he started to drag Jack toward the bed,

"The movie Jack! You'd love it. There's a Princess, and Pirates, and farm boys! And we should get you a mask! Like Wesley." A leer flitted over Ianto's face, quickly replaced by growing excitement. "And he dies! Like you! Only he's just mostly dead, and they feed him chocolates!"

Jack blinked rapidly feeling like he was facing a force of nature, and it was best to just go along with it, or get squashed. He let Ianto pet and pull him, tugging at his coat and his hands.

"Well? Come on Jack! Get into bed!" Ianto demanded, while Jack stared dazedly and realized somehow Ianto had stolen his coat right off his back, and was now happily wrapped in it, back in bed snuggling with Owen.

Jack shook his head and laughed. "Right. Sorry Sweetheart, I'm being slow." He kicked off his shoes, and climbed up next to Ianto.

Ianto made a happy noise while he dug though the coat pockets looking for candy that Jack always kept near.

Owen swatted at his hands. "No junk food. We don't need you on a sugar high."

Ianto huffed and pinged Owen on the forehead with a tube of lube a handful of condoms, before finding a hard candy, unwrapping it and popping it into his mouth before Owen could stop him.

He smiled back at Jack victoriously.

Owen rolled his eyes. "It's like baby sitting a toddler..."

Jack kissed Ianto on the forehead and smiled. "But he's adorable."

Owen snorted. "Wonderful. I'm the stay at home mum, trying to keep the kids in line, and you're the come home from work, and spoil them, dad. Bloody fantastic. Just what I wanted with my life."

Jack ignored Owen's complaining and watched Ianto become completely enthralled with the movie again, shifting so he was curled against Jack.

"So uh...Long story? And why is the bed stripped?"

Owen shifted. "Had a bit of an accident. He got so caught up in the movie that the call of nature was put on hold until it well… came anyway. Took out the sheets and my jeans"

Jack winced and Owen sighed.

"Yeah. Like I tried to tell him, it's completely normal in dementia patients. Do not look at me like that, Harkness. It upset him so much he ended up in a crying jag and throwing up, which took out the pillow cases," Owen shrugged. "But it wore him out, so at least he's easier to handle."

Jack clenched his jaw. He couldn't imagine how Ianto must have felt. Hopefully he wouldn't remember much when he came back. Bringing his hand up, he carded through Ianto's hair gently.

"Why was he crying?"

Owen rubbed his eyes. "I have no fucking clue. He was scrambled, but happy when I went to check on him in the shower. Was talking with the water or something. Then all of a sudden he's falling down, screaming and crying, and scratching at his head. By the way, those should be fine in a few days, with two of us to keep them clean."

Owen paused, and tilted Ianto's face up carefully so Jack could study the scratch marks.

"He scared the fucking shit out of me, I can tell you. I tried to calm him down, managed to get him to stop freaking out, but my attempts to get him out of the shower weren't working much till I called you."

Ianto suddenly stiffed and looked over at Owen, looking troubled. "Did I head butt you?"

Jack's head snapped sharply to Owen.

"No. You're imagining things. Watch your movie while the grownups talk." Owen told him firmly.

Ianto jabbed him in the ribs for that.

Owen winced and rubbed them. " Ianto?"

"Owen." Ianto answered.

"Okay, you're back. Then yes you did head butt me. Any nausea? Dizziness?"

"No." Ianto answered simply, turning his face back into Jack's neck.

Jack rubbed his arm soothingly.

Ianto clenched his fists, then visibly forced him self to relax. "So Jack, how was work?"

Jack bit his lip. Trust Ianto. Have the day from hell and want to talk office gossip. He gave Ianto a dazzling smile. "Oh okay you know, nothing exciting happening. No alien invasions. Mostly paperwork."

"You mean tea boy heaven."

Ianto jabbed Owen again and scowled. "Just because _some _of us, IE me, actually _do_ our, and everyone else's paperwork, instead of hiding it in the morgue drawer, doesn't mean we love it."

"You have fucking orgasms over filing!"

"...Shut up."

Jack grinned listening to them bicker. At least some things were still normal.

"Oh !" Ianto said, prodding him gently in the ribs. "Watch this part. This is the best one."

Bending down, Jack pressed a kiss to Ianto's forehead.

"As you wish, Sweetheart."


	20. Chapter 20

The second hand scraped along the clock face, dropping with a shwump-thunk on the next number, loud in the quiet room. For more than an hour Ianto had stared at the ceiling, listing to his bedside clock tick and Owen's quiet snores.

With a sigh he slipped out of the bed, being careful not to disturb Jack or Owen, while he crawled off the end, bending down to snag Jack's shirt, slipping it on and buttoning it up..

He paused to shake his head, a small smile on his face, as he looked back at his lover and his friend. Jack had dragged Owen to bed with them earlier, insisting it was just easier for everyone encase Ianto woke up scrambled again. He did remember, vaguely, waking up wrapped around the older man.

Ianto frowned, straightening his boxers where they had gotten uncomfortably twisted, and silently exited his flat, grabbing a bottle of juice, and some toast leftover from supper.

It was a little cold, and more than a little late, but the building was quiet, humming softly.

Ianto made his way up to the top floor of the building. There wasn't an easily accessible way to the roof. Not in the middle of the night at any rate. But there was a nice window that angled out, with a little ledge.

Taking a moment to open his juice he settled him self against the window, leaning out over Cardiff. It was a quiet, secluded area, and he found it peaceful. He pressed his temple against the cool glass. It felt good against the scratch marks, and he wished he could remember how he got them. Owen had said not to worry about it.

He knew going off by him self wasn't his brightest move ever, but he just needed a little bit of alone time. Needed a little space from Jack and Owen's concerned hovering. Needed some time and space to think about what he was going to do, if he didn't get better soon. He couldn't do that with Jack constantly petting and cuddling him, or Owen snorting and kicking as he drifted off to sleep.

There was no way they could keep going like this forever. No way Owen would stand to keep playing nursemaid to him all day. The man hadn't even been to his own flat except to pick up some clothes and his own pillow. Hadn't trusted Ianto to have that many pillows, and not have a fetish of some sorts. Owen didn't let him touch his pillow. Owen hadn't signed up for this, and it wasn't fair to expect him to keep this up for much longer.

And Jack. Jack would eventually get bored with a lover he couldn't even have sex with, who needed to be babysat like a child. No. Jack wouldn't. He'd accept it. Find someone else for sex. Someone in Torchwood. Maybe Ianto's replacement. They'd be rubbish with coffee. Not Gwen. Tosh maybe. She was sweet. Owen maybe. But Jack would find someone and he'd spend his evenings watching Princess Bride for the thousandth time, as his former lover ignored him in favor of talking to the carpet. And that wasn't fair either. No one should have to deal with that, let alone Jack.

Ianto nibbled on the piece of toast as he stared off into the night.

He knew what the choices were. If he didn't recover soon, he'd have to be...taken care of. Most likely retconned back to his teens, to wipe out any and all knowledge of Torchwood, and left in a mental hospital somewhere. That is, if the retcon it's self didn't kill him, with the brain damage.

He wasn't exactly sure which was the better alternative. Would Jack visit him if he lived? Wearing jeans and without his braces, so his great coat didn't trigger memories? Would he sit and listen to how Ianto had won the scrabble tournament, even though tardis wasn't really a word, and the Bonaparte's were fighting again over which one was the imposter?

Maybe they would set him up next to Janet. With enough pillows it might be comfortable. Tosh would visit him. There was even a little TV cart, so Owen could set up the movie for him. In a cell, next to Weevils. No one would clean it as well as he did. It would stink.

Ianto dropped the toast into his lab and rubbed his face. The thought of being retconned terrified him. Losing...everything. Torchwood was his life. It gave him meaning. It was the first place he'd ever felt at home. First Torchwood One, and Lisa, then eventually Torchwood Three, and Jack and the team. He couldn't imagine life without the team, without the archives. Without Jack...

000

Jack looked at his watch debating how long to give Ianto to brood on his own, before going to get him. He had been sleeping for once, only waking up when the door snicked close behind his lover.

Next to him, Owen yawned, stretched and rolled out of bed, stumbling off to the bathroom without completely waking up. Jack took the opportunity to pull the blankets back over to his side of the bed.

After a minute Owen stumbled back out, pausing to nudge Ianto back over. The doctor had quickly learned that Ianto was a bed hog, rolling into a warm spot as soon as it was abandoned.

Owen let out a puzzled, half asleep, grunt as his hands met empty air.

"Ianto?"

"He...went for a little walk."

"WHAT?!" Owen yelped, suddenly awake, as panic set in.

Jack levered himself up and put a hand on Owen's shoulder, trying to calm him down. "Owen, he's fine. He's not leaving the building."

"How the fuck do you know?"

"Because I know Ianto. He's not stupid. He knows better then to go wandering the streets in his condition."

"He's _brain damaged_ you fucking idiot! He doesn't know better! Even if he knows not to do that when he's normal, it doesn't mean he's not going to go mushy brained again, and decide to go wander out to have a friendly chat with oncoming traffic!"

Jack flinched. He hadn't thought of that. When Ianto had left, Jack hadn't even considered… He should have. Ianto was helpless right now. Even if he pretended to be okay. It was Jack's job to protect his lover, and he'd failed. If anything happened to Ianto it would be all his fault.

"I- uh I'm just going to go find him, and bring him back."

"_We _will go find him and bring him back. And then _I_ will take you out back and shoot you!" Owen snarled, shoving Jack out of bed, and yanking his shoes on.

Jack sighed as he followed Owen out of the flat, in search of Ianto.

000

"Nice view." Jack said casually, making Ianto jump. Ianto had been so focused on the view and his own thoughts that he hadn't even noticed his lover approach.

The younger man continued to stare out the window. "Hey." He said quietly, "How'd you find me?"

Jack tapped his ear, and then his wrist strap. "Tracked your comm." Jack pushed off the wall and walked closer to him. "Are you okay?"

Ianto nodded, turning all the way around to face Jack, leaning back against the window and Jack resisted the urge to yank Ianto away from the angled glass. "I just needed a little...space. I'm alright. I didn't decide to go play with weevils, or anything like that."

"Bet he considered it." Owen's voice whispered in Jack's ear. With a quick jab to, Jack shut off comm. No reason to let Owen eavesdrop if he was going to be rude, Ianto suppose

Jack quickly looked Ianto over visually checking for any signs of injures or distress. Ianto looked perfectly calm. A bit odd, wearing star spangled boxers, Jack's rumpled shirt and covered in crumbs, but he looked a calm and collected as he always did at work. "Look, I know you're more of a...introvert, used to being alone and all, but you're still hurt. You shouldn't go off alone. You could have gotten hurt, or worse, if you had another episode."

Ianto winced and rubbed his eyes. "I know. I just...needed some time and space to think. It's been a long, exhausting few days."

Not that he would remember much of them. Ianto was forgetting more and more about what happened during his bad moments, relying on Jack or Owen to fill him in.

Jack gently ran his hand though Ianto's hair, and kissed his forehead, pulling Ianto into his arms. The younger man was cold. Jack could feel it, even through his own pajama bottoms.

"Come on, lets go back to the flat. Be warned, Owen is going to scream at you."

Ianto groaned. "Can I pretend to be scrambled?"

"No, you bloody well can not pretend to be scrambled!" Owen barked, appearing around the corner at a light jog, out of breath.

"And yes, when we get you back to the flat, you're getting yelled at!" Owen checked Ianto over, looking for bruises or new injuries.

Ianto shied away. "How'd you find us? You don't have Jack's wrist strap..."

"Some little old blue hair saw me looking around and wanted to know if I was-" Owen adopted a falsetto, slightly accurate Welsh accent. "Looking for that young man wandering around in his underwear. I think he went upstairs. He sits by that window an awful lot. Nice boy."

Owen scowled. "Really, Yan! It's bad enough you sneaking out, but sneaking out in your bloody _pants_?!"

Ianto winced, tugging Jack's shirt lower self consciously. Evidently he hadn't realized he wasn't dressed properly

Owen shoved the bundle of fabric he was holding into Ianto's arms. "Put your jeans on, and lets go. You have a screaming at to get." He reached out putting the back of his hand to Ianto's cheek. "And tea. You're freezing. Now march, before I kick your arse."

Jack rubbed his lover's shoulder comfortingly while Ianto buried his face against Jack's neck, clutching his jeans against his chest. He whimpered and tried to press closer to Jack.

Worriedly, Jack threaded his fingers though Ianto' s hair. "Ianto?"

Ianto didn't answer.

Owen rubbed his eyes. "I tol-"

"You finish that sentence, and I'm shooting." Jack muttered, still comforting Ianto. "Let just g et him back home. I think he's getting-"

Owen just nodded, sighing heavily, and steered the other two men towards the flat.


	21. Chapter 21

Ianto carefully wiped the shaving foam from his chin and stared at his reflection in the mirror, tilting his head slightly to see the scabbed over scratch marks on his temple.

After seven long days of recuperation, or house arrest, as Ianto like to think of it, nothing had changed. Ianto still had bouts of well, dementia was a good word. Scientific. Slightly scary. When he has no control of his, frequently embarrassing, actions. There seemed to be no logic to the attacks. They came and went as they pleased, breaking up an other wise dull day.

Jack and Owen had been taking turns going back to work or babysitting, and Owen had more or less moved in, camping out on either the couch or bed depending on the state Ianto was in.

The doctor had, reluctantly, decided they couldn't wait forever and that Ianto could go back to the hub with supervision. Strict desk and coffee duty, with Gwen relegated to weevil feeding duties. No one was quite sure what a scrambled Ianto would think of weevils, or vise versa.

Ianto was thrilled and nearly bouncing, internally of course, from the moment he Owen had made his proclamation. He had hardly slept, spending most of the night going over hundreds of different suit, tie, and coffee order combinations.

Jack was amused, if worried, and Owen was as usual, only half awake at this time of the morning, and couldn't care less about how he might like his coffee two hours from now.

Half awake and leaning against the bathroom doorway. Owen had been convinced after one slight incident, that Ianto shouldn't be allowed behind closed doors by himself. Like he had really hurt anyone by spending the better part of an hour conversing with the spray of water while in the shower. Sure, he had run up his water bill, and somehow managed to scratch his face, but he'd hardly hurt anyone.

He rolled his eyes, nudging Owen as he passed, towel wrapped firmly around his hips. "Showers yours. Maybe it'll wake you up."

Owen grunted, as he yanked off his t-shirt, either not bothering to, or not awake enough to answer yet. He kicked out, shutting the door behind him with his heel

Jack was already wide-awake, showered and dressed, and sipping his mug of coffee on the couch. He gave Ianto a wide grin and a leer as the younger man left the bathroom. "Oooh yeah. That's what I like to see! Maybe lose the towel..."

Ianto laughed. "Sorry, Love. I don't think Owen will let you have me yet." He jumped back as Jack made a playful grab for his towel, ending up half way into the closet and using the door to block any further advances.

"Behave." Ianto chided lightly, pulling on the clothing he had already picked out. He'd _never _get into work if Jack got his hands on him, in his state of undress. And Owen wouldn't be best pleased finding his 'No Sex' directive had been ignored.

He peeked out from behind the door as he knotted his tie, and threw the towel at Jack's head, giving himself time to make it to the relative safety of the small kitchenette as the captain fought with the damp cloth.

Dodging the towel thrown back at him, Ianto set about making himself another mug of coffee, and glanced at his watch. Maybe make a spot of breakfast, since knowing the other man, it would be a while before Owen finished primping.

Ianto had just gotten a pan and a fresh carton of eggs out when Owen stepped out of the bathroom, hand clamped onto the towel wrapped around his waist, dripping and scowling. Ianto wondered if the shower had even gotten hot.

"I forgot to bring my bag in with me. Where'd it go?"

Ianto pointed. "Same place it's been for the last six days. The closet. Where clothes go."

Owen made a face. "S'not like I'm moving in permanently. I'm just here till you're less scrambled and can be left alone." He protested as he found his bag and drug it back into the bathroom, leaving the door open.

"Still, better to put things away," Ianto argued. "And not have them in the middle of the floor where we can trip over them. Even more important in my...condition." Though really, he had only tripped over Jack that once, and it had been his fault for lying on the floor.

Owen muttered around a mouthful of toothpaste, and Ianto went back to fixing breakfast.

000

Owen pulled a face at his reflection, ruffling his hair just so before turning back to his overnight bag. He frowned and rummaged through it again, then swore.

"Ianto! Clothes?" he asked, sticking his head out the door.

"Closet!" Ianto called back, cracking an egg into the pan.

Owen secured his towel more tightly and moved to the closet, finding his clothes neatly hung up near the front. Apparently Ianto had done the wash. Owen rolled his eyes.

Jack reached over to poke Owen in the side when he was close enough.

"Jeez, I know I pay you more then enough money to buy food." Jack teased. "Didn't they mention in medical school, ribs are supposed to be on the inside?"

Owen swatted his hand and glared. "I have a fast metabolism." He saw Ianto glance over with a worried frown before pausing, tilting his head and going back to his cooking. He glared again, and drug his hand quickly across his throat, clearly telling Jack to cut it out, and pointed at the younger man.

Jack grinned.

Owen didn't bother hiding in the bathroom or closet, just yanked his jeans on under his towel, then tossed the towel over the closet door while he pulled in a t-shirt, and ran his hands though his wet hair, pushing it back out of his face.

"Going commando? Kinky." Jack said with a grin, then poked Owen's ribs again, looking slightly disturbed, but at least lowering his voice. "You know, I think you're even thinner then the last time I saw you naked."

"Oh shut up, already. I'm within healthy limits for my age and height. Are we ready to go?" Owen directed the last bit towards Ianto.

The younger man made an annoyed noise.

"Iannnnto!" Owen singsonged.

"Food." Ianto answered shortly.

Owen groaned. "You've harassed me into letting you back to the hub, and now you're keeping us from getting there. I'll never understand you."

"Food." Ianto insisted, cooking.

Owen sighed and flopped down onto the couch next to Jack, who was still watching him, the mother hen gleam in his eye growing.

"You do eat right? I mean...I know you eat, I'm with you for the majority of your meals, but when you're at home, you eat food right?"

"_Yes_, Jack. I eat. I eat constantly in fact. It just happens I have a naturally fast metabolism, and I have a job that involves running all round Cardiff chasing down aliens, plus I work out. Burns a lot of calories." Owen gritted out though his clenched teeth.

Jack grinned again. Damn him.

Ianto set a heaping plate of food down on the table. "Owen? Come eat." He waited until Owen had finished rolling his eyes and sat at the table, then turned back to the stove and started cooking for Jack and himself, humming slightly.

"Ianto" Owen stared at his plate in disbelief. There had to be at least nine eggs, scrambled and piled high, along with four pieces of toast.

"Do you seriously expect me to eat all this?" Owen asked

"Yes." Ianto said simply not turning away from the pan.

"...Ianto, there's enough food here for a family of five!"

Jack slowly walked towards Ianto looking at him carefully. "Ianto? Sweetheart?"

"He's scrambled again isn't he? Shit I knew it was too soon to go back!" Owen growled, starting to get up.

"Eat!" Ianto snapped, turning slightly. Owen could see the younger man's hand clenched tightly around the plastic spatula, trembling. "I'm fine."

"Ianto" Jack said again quietly.

"I'm fine!" Ianto yelled and spun, the spatula flying past Jack's head to thud against the wall beside his bed. The shaking hand came up hiding his eyes as he took a series of deep uneven breaths.

Jack and Owen exchanged looks, but didn't speak. Jack stepped around Ianto, switching off the stove and dividing the remaining food between two plates and setting them on the table.

Owen stared at his eggs.

After a moment Ianto sighed. "I'm sorry. I- I'm fine. I just, slipped, for just a minute and it…" Ianto trailed off

'Scared the shit out of you?' Owen finished, silently, poking the food in front of him with his fork.

"It's all right." Jack reassured, guiding the younger man to the table and taking a seat on the bed next to him. He kept one hand on Ianto's back, rubbing small, slow circles.

"I'm sorry" Ianto said.

Well shit.

Owen stabbed a piece of egg and popped it into his mouth, then waved his fork dismissively.

"It's fine. At least you were speaking English. Could do with a few less eggs though, next time"

Ianto glanced at Owen's heaping plate, and Owen was pleased to see the slightest quirk of a smile before Ianto's head dipped back down to study his own food.

"Just eat." Owen said. "I've already promised Tosh she would get coffee today and she'll come looking for us if we don't get back to the hub soon."

Jack snorted and stole a forkful of eggs from Owen's plate, making Ianto's smile widen a little, and soon the three had settled into a quiet, and only slightly uncomfortable silence as they ate.


	22. Chapter 22

Jack watched Ianto wander around the hub with a bin liner, almost aimlessly, like he'd never been there before, and didn't know quite where to begin. Jack was forcing himself to stay at his desk, glancing down at the report in his hand every once in a while. He wasn't exactly sure it was a report. He hadn't bothered to actually look at it.

As he watched, Ianto finally settled in, finding Owen's stash of empty cups, carefully hidden under the doctor's desk in an attempt at making the hub look clean for Ianto's arrival. It had only been a few days, but Jack knew Ianto hated to be away. Ianto was a workaholic, to the extreme, and had been fretting about the state of the hub in his short absence.

Jack had to admit he hated Ianto being away, just as much as Ianto did. And not just because the garbage and dirty dishes piled up, almost as if more people were coming in to leave trash, and no one else could make a decent cup of coffee.

The Hub seemed empty without Ianto, and foreign. To tell the truth Jack was more than a little lost without the younger man, and he was glad to have him back.

Ianto had been ordered to take it easy and do absolutely no hard work. Jack winced as Ianto dropped to the floor, and wriggled until most of upper body was under the couch, chasing after a lost pen, or a wayward napkin, or god only knew what.

Owen walked into Jack's office and threw a report into Jack's lap before perching on the edge of the desk. He crossed his arms. "Man does not know the meaning of the words 'take it easy' does he? I never should have let him come back yet..."

"He's tidying, not hauling lumber. Let him be. Like you said, we can't keep him in bed all the time, or he's going to hurt _us_." Jack muttered, eyes not moving from Ianto, who had retrieved whatever it was that was worth the trouble of sprawling on the floor, and had moved on to the sink.

Owen sighed and rubbed his eyes. "This is why I hate living patients. A corpse doesn't give me so much trouble." Owen had tried earlier to subtly herd Ianto towards a stack of files near the couch, hoping the younger man would sit for a while. Ianto had simply squared up the stack and moved on.

"You have to admit he's doing pretty well. He didn't even freak out when Myfanwy dove at him."

The doctor shook his head and turned back to the main hub. "Yeah, Yeah. Just…don't let him overdo it." He warned. "I'm going to go water my plants. They're right up there with corpses. Don't roll their eyes or anything." With that he left the office and headed up to the conference room cum greenhouse, stopping briefly to harass Ianto.

Jack chuckled slightly then sighed, turning around and focusing on the file Owen had thrown at him. He couldn't spend the _whole_ day watching Ianto. Though, he decided, maybe he could turn the desk around. He really didn't like the new layout anyway.

000

Ianto let out a short huff of amusement as caught both Jack and Owen spying on him, Owen peeking out from between computer monitors, and Jack spinning his chair in apparent boredom, always stopping so that he faced Ianto's last known position.

Honestly. It was almost three in the afternoon and he hadn't had a single…episode, since breakfast. Well hardly any. And it was only nausea, and some disorientation. That really didn't count, though he did dutifully make a note of it in the logbook Owen had drawn up.

For a moment he thought the coffee machine was talking to him, but he had read a study that the human mind tried to find patterns in white noise, like fans or static. The coffee maker made a lot of noise, so he left that out of the logbook.

He had even done a bit of filing, albeit trailed by Tosh, who conveniently had some artifact she needed from the exact storage room he was in. Once she had found out about the little-used break room in the archives she had settled herself in with a cup of outdated chamomile tea and made small talk until Ianto was finished.

Gwen had gone to get coffees, no one had thought to replace the coffee beans when they got low in his absence, and Ianto took the opportunity to tidy Gwen's desk.

How it had gotten so messy over the course of a few hours he would never know. He strongly suspected they were being slobs just to give him some busy work.

He leaned over to straighten a pile of papers in Gwen's outbox and frowned as his eye caught on the bright colors. He carefully pulled the object free and stared at the cheerful cover. It was a children's coloring book. And it hadn't been there when he tidied this morning.

"Oh! Um Ianto!" Gwen's sudden voice startled Ianto and he spun around, still clutching the book.

"Gwen."

"Hey! I didn't realize you were done in the archives yet!" Gwen's eyes nervously flicked from the coloring book to Ianto's face and back again, a bright smile pasted over her anxious face.

"Taking up art, are you?" Ianto asked quietly, rather hoping she'd say yes, or that she was planning to visit a niece of nephew, or friend with a small child. Gwen though oozed a sense of guilt that twisted Ianto's stomach.

"Oh well...I just got a couple coloring books because I figured, maybe," Gwen stuttered. "You'd like them where you're...uh not all there?" she finished in a rush, staring at the bag of coffee beans in her hands.

A coloring book. She had bought him a coloring book. He felt an angry wash of heat flood his face.

"Not all…" He repeated stupidly. "Gwen Cooper, I'm injured. Not a child. Yes I have- I have problems sometimes, but I'm not six years old." Ianto didn't raise his voice, but managed to make Gwen wince.

"Ianto I'm- I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. I just thought-"

Ianto resisted, barely, the urge to laugh. At Gwen, or himself, or the situation, he wasn't quite sure. There wasn't anything funny about it. He sighed.

"Thought what? That I've been turned into a child? That I can be sat in the corner with a coloring book to entertain me like a bored child in church?"

Gwen's mouth opened and closed for a moment. "No, it's just- um well people like to color? Uh art therapy?"

Ianto swallowed and calmly set the book down on top of the stack of paperwork, squaring it neatly. "Thank you Gwen. That's quite thoughtful. I- I'm going to make coffee. Would you care for some?" He carefully kept his voice under control and showed no more emotion then if he was giving directions to a lost tourist, gently taking the coffee beans from her.

Gwen nodded, eyes wide, twisting her fingers nervously as Ianto walked past her towards the coffee machine.

He stared at the machine for a full minute. The only outward sign belying the calm façade he created was his nails, digging deeply into his palms.

It wasn't Gwen's fault. She was trying to help. She was. She didn't know she was pressing every button he had, and making him wish he _was_ that scrambled so he could throw a screaming hissy fit, or maybe just not know enough to be hurt and upset.

Would he be like that? Sitting quietly at Jack's desk, coloring away, not even worrying about staying in the lines, or making the grass green instead of purple? Christ.

He forcefully straightened his hand, dismissing the small trickles of blood his fingernails left and took a deep breath as he started making the coffees, letting the soothing noises of the coffee machine calm him.

For the moment, he was in control. That's all he would allow himself to think about.

The nausea, that always signaled an upcoming spell, rose up, and he shut his eyes tightly.

No. He was fine. He was just fine.

He barely made it to the sink before he threw up.


	23. Chapter 23

Owen chewed his pen and looked up as Ianto shifted and started to stretch.

Owen had just really gotten back into work mode after Ianto's latest episode. It hadn't been too bad really, and at least they had caught it quickly. Gwen had found Ianto hunched over the sink, and had immediately called for Owen and Jack. She said that Ianto had seemed upset over something, and the doctor knew that on a bad day that could trigger an episode.

He'd made Ianto lie down and take a nap with a needle full of an anti-emetic and sedatives. In his scrambled state, Ianto refused to lay down on the couch, or in Jack's room, and instead bedded him self down with a pillow and a makeshift pallet of folded blankets on the treadmill in the greenhouse, while Owen worked on cataloging some new plant developments.

Not the most normal day Owen had ever had at Torchwood, but hopefully Ianto had slept off the worst of it.

Ianto rubbed his eyes and pushed him self to his feet, before carefully staggering over to where Owen was sitting. "How long was I out?" He asked glancing down at his wrist, devoid of his usual watch.

"Not long. Hour and a half or so."

Ianto sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I should get back to work. Make coffee or something. Want a cup?"

"Oh hell yes" Owen groaned, just thinking about it. Ianto hadn't gotten the coffee beans ground before he turned scrambly, and no one else wanted to face his eventual wrath if they messed up the grinder.

He could definitely use some coffee.

Owen allowed Ianto to move a small potted plant and boost himself up to sit on the table.

"I'll take back every bad thing I've ever said about you, for just one cup."

Ianto snorted lightly. "As if you haven't had my coffee every morning before your eyes are even open, the last few days."

"I'm a addict. I fully admit it. Caffeine is life." Owen said turning fully to face him, and quickly ran his eyes over him critically. "How are you doing? Having any problems now? Headache? Dizziness? Nausea? Blurred vision? Anything at all?"

Ianto shook his head. "I'm fine Owen. No problems. I don't feel sick anymore, and I haven't had any episodes."

Owen quirked an eyebrow. Ianto had most certainly had an 'episode', and Owen had already spent the better part of an hour fending off a concerned Jack over the comms.

"Well, except for that nausea earlier. But lying down for a bit helped. And okay, I got a little dizzy feeding Myfanwy. But I think that was just the height." Ianto admitted, stroking the leaf of an alien plant distractedly. The green frond curled around his finger in turn, petting the archivist lightly. The rows of vents along the purple stem vibrated, making a trilling sort of coo.

Owen took a minute to record the new behavior in his botanical database before turning back to Ianto. "Fair enough. Anything else I need to know?"

"You lot are all slobs. I'm gone for a few days and the place is a disaster zone."

Owen snorted. "You knew what you were signing up for."

Ianto shrugged. "What about you though?" he countered worriedly.

"Huh?" Owen frowned then remembered his own supposed concussion. "Yeah, I'm okay. No vision changes, dizziness, or anything. In fact I think I may already be totally healed." Of course, even if he had a concussion it wouldn't have lasted for a week. Owen made a mental note to schedule a first aid refresher once Ianto was feeling better. Hopefully the brain damage was just interfering with his sense of time. It was an even scarier prospect that he was seeing Ianto's true first aid knowledge.

Ianto hummed softly and reached out for Owen's forehead, brushing against the completely unnecessary butterfly bandage. "You got your stitches wet this morning. I forgot to yell at you about that before. Got distracted by all your ribs..."

Owen pulled back rolling his eyes and groaned. "Okay you're coffee is not _that_, good Yan! Stop it with the mothering!"

"Well someone has to." Ianto abandoned the plant in favor of crossing his arms over his chest. It trilled in disappointment.

"You don't take care of your self" Ianto continued. "You should have Tosh check those stitches and see if they need to be redone or something."

Owen laughed and shook his head. He didn't have the heart to tell Ianto the stitches had come out days ago. "Yes mum. I'll do that right away."

Ianto grinned back, a wicked gleam in his eye. "That's my good boy. Remember to wash up before lunch, eat all your veggies, and drink all your milk, or no desert. I plan to bake a cake later."

"...okay you are far too good at that. Stop it. It's creepy." Owen said with a shudder. In retrospect he was kind of happy his mother hadn't been like that.

Ianto smirked and patted him on the head. "Now you go be a good boy for the nice Dr Sato, and then maybe I'll let you have a biscuit before lunch."

"Seriously, stop it!" Owen swatted at his hand. The plant made an offended noise.

"I might even let you borrow my coloring book." Ianto continued, and Owen paused.

"...what?"

"Gwen was kind enough to get me some coloring books to keep me entertained, in my scrambled periods." Ianto said lightly, though his eyes had grown dark. "Sweet girl, isn't she? Maybe you can have a play date with her or something later."

Owen felt a sudden swell of anger. Trust the caring one to make an ass of herself. "I'll throttle Gwen later. And you can stop that any time now you know."

"Stop what, deary?"

Owen smacked his bluetooth. "Jack! Make Ianto stop being creepy!"

"...what?" their captain sounded confused.

"He thinks he's my mother or something!"

"Is he, uh—" Jack asked uncertainly.

"Nope. Make him behave."

"Behave, Ianto." Jack parroted back dutifully.

Ianto still was wearing his evil grin but his voice sounded as cool, calm, and mildly concerned as usual. "I'm not sure what Owen's talking about. I think he might be feeling a bit ill. I'm going to take him down to the autopsy bay and have Tosh check him over. Delayed affects from his concussion maybe?"

"Owen, go see Tosh now!" Jack's voice was tinged with the slightest hint of panic, and the doctor winced. It was a volatile mixture of Jack playing it up for Ianto's benefit, and truly crap medical skills.

Owen glared at Ianto. "Jack-"

"Owen go!"

Owen tapped his comm off to glare at Ianto, who was wearing a self-satisfied smile. "Oh you are evil. Pure evil."

Ianto bit his lip to swallow back his grin, and looked concerned again. "You were hurt, you should be checked over. You could get an infection or something. It looks red."

Owen cursed loudly as he stomped from the green house, Jack appearing at the top of the stairs to escort him to the autopsy bay. "Don't break anything!" he yelled over his shoulder.

Ianto waved cheerfully, before picking up a watering can and tending to the small, possibly sentient plant. Maybe letting the teaboy come back wasn't such a great idea.


	24. Chapter 24

Tosh spun in her chair as she focused her attention on a monitor near the edge of her desk. On screen was a little red blip, representing a Slithoriax that was running, or oozing rather, down the back alleys of Cardiff, and a larger blue blip, the SUV, was in pursuit, veering slightly as it crossed the screen, due to Jack's erratic driving. She could hear both Owen and Gwen cursing good-naturedly over the comm.

Ianto tapped rapidly at the keyboard beside her, bringing up information, and sending it to the SUV on board computer. "Jack?" He asked calmly. "Are you getting this?

"Got it, Yan! Tosh?"

"Jack you need to take the next right, go half a kilometer, then take the left and you're there!" Tosh said zooming in on the red blip as it hung a right near the corner deli.

"Alright people, we have a rogue alien, we can't let it escape. Tosh, Ianto keep a eye on the sensors, Gwen, Owen, be ready for anything!" Jack had slipped in to commander role, firing off orders that bordered on stating the obvious. Tosh murmured an affirmative into her Bluetooth, before turning to a second screen that had a detailed description of the Slithoriax.

Ianto and Tosh kept constantly checking the screens in front of them. Tosh flicked her eyes over just in time to see Ianto pale, touching shaking fingers to his temple.

"Ianto?" Tosh questioned quietly, keeping one eye on the monitors. It had been two weeks, and, if anything, Ianto's spells had been getting more frequent.

Ianto took a deep breath. "Headache, nausea. I- uh I think another attack is coming." He swallowed convulsively, and rubbed at his eyes before bringing up CCTV footage that showed the SUV at the mouth of an alley.

"I think-" He swallowed again. "I think I should go. Will you be okay without me?"

Tosh gave him a worried look. "Go lay down in Jack's room. I'll be fine. I do this everyday." Movement on the screen caught her eye, and she tapped her comm. "it took a left Owen." She said briefly, and then turned her attention back to Ianto.

"Are you sure you're okay? Do you want me to look you over?" Tosh asked. Ianto nodded, shook his head, and then rubbed at his eyes again. He wavered slightly.

Tosh opened her mouth just as Jack called though the comm for information. She quickly got it to him, and when she glanced over to Ianto again. He was gone, though there was movement in Jack's office. With a sigh she turned her full attention back to the situation at hand, trusting Ianto to take care of himself.

000

And hour later the team, minus Tosh, who was currently aloft feeding Myfanwy, were laughing and joking as they entered the hub though the rolling cog door. Things had gone well and spirits were high. Ianto met them with a tray of coffees and a slight case of bed head. Jack smiled and caught the tea towel that was tossed towards him, using it to blot at the slime decorating his greatcoat's shoulder.

"Mission was a success I take it?" Ianto asked, rotating the tray just so, so that each person could take his or her mug.

"Yup! Got the Slithoriax and managed to shove it back though a rift opening, without anyone getting hurt. Took awhile to get that rift, but I call it a successful mission." Jack answered cheerfully, giving Ianto a quick kiss as he took his coffee.

He paused, and then dove in for another kiss. Something was off. He frowned at the taste of toothpaste instead of the coffee he had been expecting. Lately that meant Ianto had been sick recently. After a scrambled episode Ianto brushed his teeth obsessively, and coffee usually irritated any remaining nausea. He gave his lover a worried look.

Owen narrowed his eyes watching Ianto closely as he took his mug. Gwen brushed by him taking hers with a thank you and a quick, concerned glance before she moved on to her desk. Adam shot Ianto a worried glance as he took his coffee and sat at his own desk.

"What's wrong?" Owen demanded eyes still glued to Ianto.

"Nothing, why do you ask?"

"Something's wrong, I can tell."

"He was feeling ill before, had to go rest." Tosh said, coming down the stairs with an empty meat platter.

Owen instantly set his coffee down and moved closer to Ianto. "Yan?"

Ianto sighed and shifted the nearly empty tray to one hand. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I felt an...attack coming on. I'm sorry, I thought I was past this, I thought I was getting better, and you could depend on me, but I guess you can't, if I'm going to get sick and have to lie down." Ianto stared down at his shoes as he spoke. "I- I should go home, and stay there till I'm normal again." The confessions came out in a guilty rush, tinged with more than a little disappointment.

"Yeah, but then you'll never be back." Owen said casually, and smirked when Ianto scowled at him. "Ianto, you did fine. You felt sick, so you laid down. I'd be ordering you home and cuffing you to the bed if you ididn't/i go lay down when you felt ill." He studied Ianto. "Which I'm going to start considering, if you don't go back to sleep now, till you stop looking green." Owen looked around, spotting a bottle of orange juice on the coffee table. He picked it up and pressed it into Ianto's free hand.

"I'm fine." Ianto insisted, though the tray he was holding started to tremble slightly. Jack acted quickly and rescued the last of the coffees. Ianto set the empty tray and the bottle of juice down, and stuffed his shaking hands in his pockets. "I'm here to work. I'm not paid to lay around."

"Well you are now. Go on, sweetheart. Lay down before Owen snaps and cuffs you to the bed, and not in the fun sense. Adam and I will probably help him catch you." Jack ordered with a gentle smile, handing the coffees off and stroking his lover's arm.

Ianto scowled, but leaned into the touch a bit, sighing as he rubbed his temples. Jack expected another protest, not Ianto stepping closer, winding his arms around Jack's waist and pressing in until his cheek rested against Jack's shoulder, the unstained one, of course. Out of habit Jack pressed his cheek to the top of Ianto's head.

"Alright," Ianto said quietly, after a minute. "I guess I'll go lay down for a bit longer."

Jack bit back a wince, knowing Ianto was less then all there, if he was being so hands on with the others in the room. He put on a bright grin, with a touch of leer. "Want some company?"

"Yes- Um no. No. I'll be fine. But thank you." Ianto muttered, turning and heading back towards Jack's office, and room. He stopped, turning around suddenly. "Yes." He nodded. "Yes, please?" Ianto made the request sound hopeful.

Jack gave Ianto a small, but real smile. "Sure thing. Give me a minute to gather up some supplies. Wait in the office for me okay?" Jack didn't think it would be the brightest idea to let Ianto go down the ladder himself, when he wasn't at 100 percent.

Ianto nodded again, and headed towards the office, Jack watched him go, a look of concern on his face.

Owen followed the younger with his eyes as he propped himself against Adam's desk, sipping his coffee. "Supplies would be juice, water, and some crackers or plain biscuits." The doctor offered. "I'll bring down a goody basket of meds later. It's probably just best to let him sleep here." They had already decided that either Jack or Adam would stay with Ianto at his flat, but this would work in a pinch. Jack wondered if Owen was planning to camp out on the couch, and figured it was more than likely. The doctor was more than a little overprotective of his friend turned patient.

Jack nodded, taking a minute to finish his coffee.

"He'll be fine." Owen continued. "I meant what I said, it's good that he knows his limits, and stops when he needs to. I'll check on him later, but I'm sure he'll be fine after a bit more sleep. That normally helps."

"I know...I just worry." Jack muttered rubbing his face. Tosh came and sat down on the couch, and Owen flopped down heavily beside her.

"He was fine all afternoon Jack." Tosh said quietly. "He was doing an excellent job, and then he got a bit ill. I know he's disappointed but It's only been a few weeks since he was hurt. We all just need to give it some time. "

"And until then we'll adapt." Gwen chimed in, trying to sound reassuring. "He's still ten times as useful as Owen." She added with a grin.

"Oi!"

Gwen stuck her tongue out. "So we just take it as it goes and wait it out right?"

Jack sighed and drained the last of the coffee. "I managed to wait over 100 years to find The Doctor... Why did I have to lose my patience now?"

Even though it was a metaphorical question, the rest of the team shrugged.

Adam clapped a hand on Jack's shoulder comfortingly. "He has his good days too, remember."

Jack gave Adam a small smile and nodded slightly. "I know. I still just..."

"We'll get though this Jack. We're all here for you, and him. We take care of our family." Adam reassured him before giving him another friendly pat and pulling away. The rest of the team murmured in agreement.

"Jack?" Ianto's voice was uncertain, and only his head peeked out from around the office door. "Jack?" he called again, followed by a stream of mixed Welsh and French that lilted up like a question at the end.

"I'm here." Jack called out, grabbing the orange juice from the table, and catching a box of crackers that Owen aimed at him, obviously left over from Tosh's earlier attempts at care giving. As he passed Gwen she offered up an unopened bottle of water that set on her desk. Adam popped open his DVD drive and handed him the copy of Princess Bride that Ianto had been watching earlier.

Jack smiled. "Don't worry, Sweetheart." he reassured Ianto, who was smiling shyly at him now. "I'm right here."

The End

(Authors' Notes:

Yep. You read that right. The End. Thanks for sticking around, the feedback has been amazing. And thanks for putting up with the slow updates, totally my fault. Hope you enjoyed the ride. –qualli

Thank you everyone so much for all your reviews, favorites, alerts, and everything and liking this fic so much! Hope you like the ending, and don't die on us! A sequel will be coming, eventually! –dru)


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